Some of the most flowery praise you hear on the subject of teams is only hypocrisy. Managers learn to talk a good game about teams even when they're secretly threatened by the whole concept.
When managers overdo micromanaging of others, they probably hired the wrong people or failed to give them a clear idea of what each one is to accomplish. I prefer to train employees to be self-managers, just as in an orchestra each performer knows his or her role without being micromanaged.
I've done it the correct way with the coaching badges. I have done watching the games, I have done listening to managers, I have done travelling around Europe watching other managers train, I have done a bit of TV work to help with analysis.
Find ways to decentralize. Move decision making authority down and out. Encourage a more entrepreneurial approach.
At the end of the day, it's the general managers' and the scouts' opinion on you and what teams need, what they're looking for.
At Intuit, we've introduced concepts like unstructured time to enable individuals and small teams to be entrepreneurial and identify new processes or product ideas.
I played soccer when I was a kid. I started when I was 8 and played for 8 more years. I was pretty good. I used to train with Atletico Nacional, which is one of the most important teams in Colombia. I used to train every day.
The image-managers encourage the individual to fashion himself into a smooth coin, negotiable in any market.
There are only two kinds of managers. Winning managers and ex-managers.
The best way we can encourage people to create companies that create jobs is to celebrate the diverse entrepreneurial stories and the variety of drivers that led these entrepreneurs to sticking their necks out.
If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.
Teams buy players and change managers if they feel they need change at the club.
In business the 80/20 principle is behind any innovation, any extra value. It is an entrepreneurial principle, a formula for value creation utilized not only by entrepreneurs, but by most managers and organizations.
You see a lot of managers who are working and yet are already talking about other countries and other teams. But that's not for me.
I think everybody is in agreement that America is a great entrepreneurial nation. We have got to encourage that. Of course, we have to support small and medium-sized businesses. But you can have all of the growth that you want and it doesn't mean anything if all of the new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent.
It's no surprise that optimistic athletes, managers and teams do better. What's interesting is where they do better. It's in coming back from defeat and acting in the clutch.