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.
Margaret HeffernanRead
Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.
Interpretation
Executives often prioritize action over reflection, which can hinder their long-term success.
In this quote, Margaret Heffernan highlights the common tendency among executives to focus excessively on taking action, sometimes to the detriment of their ability to reflect and strategize. She suggests that in their pursuit of success, many leaders overlook the importance of pausing to think critically about their decisions and actions, leading to missed opportunities for growth and improvement.
In practice
This quote could be used in a leadership seminar to emphasize the need for balance between action and reflection.
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.
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.
We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
What can I do to create a healthy work environment? Because we have all been groomed to the normalization of violence and the normalization of abuse. And we refuse to live in that society.
People are often led to causes and often become committed to great ideas through persons who personify those ideas. They have to find the embodiment of the idea in flesh and blood in order to commit themselves to it.
I have heard that one can conquer the empire on horseback, but one cannot govern it on horseback.
While you cannot deliver policies without principles, you cannot deliver principles without having power. You have quickly to move to a stage where, emphasising your principles, you build a programme, then call for popular support.
Great empires are not maintained by timidity.
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