Margaret Heffernan

How can any company know if its processes, products, people are safe? Only if everyone is watching and telling the truth. The first part can be assumed; the second cannot.

Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.

Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them.

If the company depends entirely on you - your creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, salesmanship or charisma - nobody will want to buy it. The risk and the dependency are too great.

Those in powerless positions aren't about to complain about bullying bosses, abusive supervisors or corrupt co-workers. There is no safe way to do so and no process that promises redress.

Bosses and leaders everywhere should cherish the people who bring them bad news, disappointing data or hard problems.

[For constructive conflict,] we have to resist the neurobiological drive which means that we really prefer people mostly like ourselves.

All businesses and jobs depend on a vast number of people, often unnoticed and unthanked, without which nothing really gets done. They are all human and deserve respect and gratitude.

I don't think a true company - one that builds sustainable value - can ever only exist online or remotely.

In business, staying focused requires that you turn most opportunities down.

Many CEOs and leaders think that silence is indeed golden, that consensus is bliss. It is - sometimes. But more often what it signifies is that there are no respected processes for surfacing concerns and dissent.

In our house, Mother's Day is every day. Father's Day, too. In our house, parents count. They do important work and that work matters. One day just doesn't cut for us.

I regularly take my entrepreneurship students out walking because I want to get them in the habit of noticing and thinking about what they notice. They have to leave their phones behind to learn the basic lesson: Be where you are.

When we confront facts and fears, we achieve real power and unleash our capacity for change.

Business is not a science; it is not susceptible to experiments that can be controlled and replicated. Everything in business is too unpredictable for that - every business, employee, product, market is different and keeps changing.

Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.

It is nobody's right to be waited on and nobody's fate to do the waiting.

Openness isn't the end. It's the beginning.