Pearls of Wisdom from Leadership Greats

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Inspirational quote by Confucius There is always something to be said from taking advice from those who have been there and done that. There is strength and efficiency in learning from successful people. Whether you completely agree, or think it’s total bologna, these ideals and practices are part of what got these leaders where they are today. Find out what came out of the mouths of industry leaders.

Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, on Micromanagement :

Hiring people smarter than yourself is the long-term answer to your micromanagement problem. I take it very seriously, and I encourage all of my direct reports to apply it to their direct reports, all the way down the organization to the most junior levels. This is hard to do, and we’re certainly not perfect at executing the rule all the time, but we come pretty close.

Libby Sartain, VP of the People Department at Southwest Airlines, on Joining a Cult :

Taking a job with Southwest is like joining a cult. The ultimate employee is someone whose devotion to customer and company amounts to a sense of mission, a sense that ‘the cause’ comes before their own needs.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, on Values :

We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn’t want to just sell shoes. I wasn’t even passionate about shoes –but I was passionate about customer service.

Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, on Lazy Workers :

I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.

Laszlo Bock, SVO of People Ops at Google, on Reviews for Managers :

We’ve actually made it harder to be a bad manager. If you go back to somebody and say, “Look, you’re an eighth-percentile people manager at Google. This is what people say.” They might say, “Well, you know, I’m actually better than that.” And then I’ll say, “That’s how you feel. But these are the facts that people are reporting about how they experience you.”

Charley Polachi, Managing Partner of Polachi Access Executive Search, on Efficiency: 

Be on time. Be brief. Be gone. In business, you must complete tasks in a timely manner. Do not linger on events that can be handled by others on your team more effectively. Once that task is complete, be ready to pivot to the next task.

Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Motors and SpaceX, on A-holes: 

And, in fact, we have a strict ‘no-a**holes policy’ at SpaceX. And we fire people if they are. I mean, we give them a little bit of warning. But if they continue to be an a**hole, then they’re fired.

Jenn Hyman, Founder and CEO, Rent The Runway, on Start-ups and Small Businesses:

Start-ups and small businesses are challenging and hard, there are days when you don’t know if you’re doing to get through it. I want people around me who are constantly able to understand that it’s a privilege to build something great from scratch.

By Courtney McGann