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
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.
Interpretation
A business should not rely on a single individual for its success.
This quote emphasizes the importance of collective effort in a business setting. If a company relies solely on one person's skills or attributes, it creates a risk that may deter potential buyers or stakeholders, highlighting the need for broader talent and resilience within the organization.
In practice
In a business meeting when discussing the importance of teamwork.
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.
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.
I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours - and thrived on it.
A successful life depends less on how long you live than on how much you can pack into the time you have.
I think that once you've had a few No. 1s in your career that you've kind of proven yourself and I don't feel the need to prove anything anymore.
We need to have a better balance between a deliberate strategy and staying open. Because in the end, most of us end up being successful in a career that we never imagined we would be in at the beginning.
My whole career strategy has been to build a base so that I could take the roles I want to play. I'd hate to think that a shorter part might not be available because I was worried about my billing.
Touchdowns to me means that you're scoring points and helping your team win games. You can have a lot of yards and not have points and not win games. So, this only means something because it has helped our teams win games and we won the division today in a competitive AFC West, that's a good thing.
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