You got to be rigorous in your appraisal system. The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand.
One of the biggest challenges we face today is finding managers who can sense and respond to rapid shifts, people who can process new information very quickly and make decisions in real time. It's a problem for the computer industry as a whole - and not just for Dell - that the industry's growth has outpaced its ability to create managers.
There's two or three managers I can't stand. I detest them and they know that.
The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.
Some people are cowards... I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards, and a third are heroes. Now, a villain and a coward can choose to be a hero, but they've got to make that choice.
Even the biggest heroes turn into cowards when they get tired.
Taro taught me that people respect spirit, but even cowards don't respect cowards.
As a result of overdiversification, their (active managers) returns get watered down. Diversification covers up ignorance. Active managers haven't done enough research into any of their companies. If managers have 200 positions, do you think they know what's going on at any one of those companies at this moment?
To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards of men.
We're all flawed, but basically, effective managers are people whose flaws are not fatal under the circumstances. Maybe the best managers are simply ordinary, healthy people who aren't too screwed up.
I know what my purpose is. I know what I need to do out there on the floor. Sometimes you won't score a bunch of points, but breathing confidence into the people around you is the biggest key, the biggest role.
This is a formidable enemy. To dismiss it as a bunch of 'cowards' perpetuating 'senseless acts of violence' is complacent nonsense. People willing to kill thousands of innocents while they kill themselves are not cowards. They are deadly vicious warriors and need to be treated as such.
There are only two kinds of managers. Winning managers and ex-managers.
Cowards make the best torturers. Cowards understand fear and they can use it
Many managers feel, somewhat cynically, that people are being paid to do their jobs and that's that. This attitude reflects an insensitivity to people that is a trademark of many hockey-style managers.
The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.