39 Quotes by Robert Townsend

It's a poor bureaucrat who can't stall a good idea until even its sponsor is relieved to see it dead and officially buried.

Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun.

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

When you get right down to it, one of the most important tasks of a leader is to eliminate his people's excuse for failure.

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.

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

Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise.

"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.

Managers must have the discipline not to keep pulling up the flowers to see if their roots are healthy.