Robert Townsend Quotes

A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart.

A good manager doesn't try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you're the boss and your people fight you openly when they think that you are wrong - that's healthy.

Consultants are people who borrow your watch and tell you what time it is, and then walk off with the watch.

If you don't do it excellently, don't do it at all. Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?

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

Is what I'm doing or about to do getting us closer to our objective?

Make every decision as if you owned the whole company.

Many ideas are good for a limited time - not forever.

Most people in big companies are administered, not led. They are treated as personnel, not people.

One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people's excuses for failure.

The artist must conceive with warmth yet execute with coolness.

The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.

"Top" management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I'm still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.

True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.