Sublime

Sometimes, even though you’re “in charge,” you need to be aware that in the moment you might have nothing to add, and so you don’t wade in. You trust your people to do their jobs and focus your energies on some other pressing issue.

ROBERT F. SMITH Founder and CEO, Vista Equity Partners; Philanthropist

You have to convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly. If you don't articulate your priorities clearly, then the people around you don't know what their own should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted.

I would give Roy an emeritus role on the board and would invite him to film premieres and theme-park openings and special company events. (He wouldn’t attend board meetings, however.) I’d also give him a small consulting fee and an office on the lot so he could come and go and call Disney his home again. In exchange, there would be no lawsuit, no p

When hiring, try to surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do. Genuine decency-an instinct for fairness and openness and mutual respect-is a rarer commodity in business than it should be, and you should look for it in the people you hire and nurture it in the people who work for you.

• Take responsibility when you screw up. In work, in life, you'll be more respected and trusted by the people around you if you own up to your mistakes. It's impossible to avoid them; but it is possible to acknowledge them, learn from them, and set an example that it's okay to get things wrong sometimes.

He told Catmull, “I can go to Disney and be a director, or I can stay here and make history.”

Managing, by the former head of ITT, Harold Geneen.