Sublime

I’ve watched too many leaders shield themselves from task conflict. As they gain power, they tune out boat-rockers and listen to bootlickers. They become politicians, surrounding themselves with agreeable yesmen and becoming more susceptible to seduction by sycophants. Research reveals that when their firms perform poorly, CEOs who indulge flattery

Yet who would one choose: a Warren Buffett who has built up so much; or a Jack Welch who might have managed the largest company in the world, General Electric, but by means of cracking whips and a culture of fear about who would be fired next? PSG subsidiaries have been compelled to retrench people, but I hope I’m leading from the front rather than

Leadership is ultimately about driving change, while management is about creating stability.

Observation – sizing up others and measuring situations – is an essential part of preparation,

The need to go beyond what you are authorized to do, both formally and informally, is what distinguishes adaptive leadership from good management.

BG: I’m certainly nowhere near as hands-on as I was when I would either write the code or look it over and hire all the programmers. In my career, this evolution of being an individual performer, then a manager, then a manager of managers, and then setting broad strategy—you have to get used to the fact you don’t have as much control.

point a good leader with inadequate data will say, “Ready, fire, aim . . . and if it doesn’t work we’ll correct it, but at least the timing is right to start with what we have.” A good leader sees the best in his people, not the worst; he is not a scapegoat hunter. He sees winners, and he uses “the rule of 50 percent,”

The best way to solve a management problem, he believed, was through “creative confrontation”—by facing people “bluntly, directly, and unapologetically.”*

IDO NOT believe leaders are born leaders. Leadership is an acquired skill. And, most important, leadership, like swimming, has to be learned through active participation and practice. It cannot be learned solely through observation. Great leaders in my opinion possess three flexible skills: toughness, tenderness, and the ability to know when is the