Some meetings should be long and leisurely. Some should be mercifully brief. A good way to handle the latter is to hold the meeting with everybody standing up.The meetees won’t believe you at first.Then

Before you commit yourself to a new effort, it’s worth asking yourself a couple of questions: “Are we really trying to do something worthwhile here?” “Or are we just building another monument to some diseased ego?”

Money: A tight budget brings out the best creative instincts in man. Give him unlimited funds and he won’t come up with the best way to a result. Man is a complicating animal. He only simplifies under pressure. Put him under some financial pressure. He’ll scream in anguish.Then he’ll come up with a plan which, to his own private amazement, is not

PROMISES Keep them. If asked when you can deliver something, ask for time to think. Build in a margin of safety. Name a date. Then deliver it earlier than you promised.

The most important currency of leadership is time. If you commit your time to your people and create an atmosphere and a perception of fairness, you will earn their respect, and your organization will achieve results far beyond anyone’s expectations.

I’ve gone away. Until I get back Henry is chief executive officer. Please don’t hold up decisions. Anything you do in my absence will have my complete support when I return. R. C. T. Two things about this. Rotate the acting successor if you can. Otherwise you’ve named your heir. And don’t say where you’ve gone or when you’ll be back. Remember, you

“What are you going to do with that report?” “What would you do if you didn’t have it?” Otherwise your programmers will be writing their doctoral papers on your machines, and your managers will be drowning in ho-hum reports they’ve been conned into asking for and are ashamed to admit are of no value.

Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can’t solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then, unlike Solomon, pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work.

If you have to have a policy manual, publish the Ten Commandments.