Definition
Reliable, composed control (of an organization or situation).
A person exhibiting such control.
In Context
- "The new president of the Varityper division of the financially troubled AM International, Joseph A. Verderber, knows that he has his work cut out for him. . . . "My challenge in a ship that big is to make certain that it has a good steady hand on the tiller.""
- ""My hero," McCain declared, is Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "Walk softly, and carry a big stick." . . . McCain was left with this: "When times are tough, we need a steady hand on the tiller.""
- "Analyst Mark Brumby at Astaire said: ". . . The share register remains skewed but the current shareholders are likely to have learned from the mistakes of the past and, it is to be hoped, will provide a steady hand on the tiller.""
- "[T]heir expressions of confidence in the new Bush administration were likely heartfelt — officials around the world reminisced enthusiastically about the scion of a president best remembered as a sober and steady hand on the tiller of foreign policy."
- "In his time, the veteran director Mike Newell has tackled a remarkably wide range of film genres. . . .[H]e was the steady hand on the tiller of the phenomenal Four Weddings and a Funeral, a deceptively effortless-looking romantic comedy which, lest we forget, did not direct itself."
- "For six years Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promoted himself as a “steady hand on the tiller” to steer the nation through turbulent economic waters."