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Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them.

Margaret Heffernan

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Margaret Heffernan
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: June 16
Businessperson
Writer
Texas
United States
Tell
Power
People
Advances
Inevitably
Agendas
Surrounded
Whatever

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The biggest catastrophes that we've witnessed rarely come from information that is secret or hidden. It comes from information that is freely available and out there, but that we are willfully blind to.
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Those in powerless positions aren't about to complain about bullying bosses, abusive supervisors or corrupt co-workers. There is no safe way to do so and no process that promises redress.
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Silence is the language of inertia.
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On overnight flights, I have trained myself to get to sleep almost instantly after takeoff. I always listen to the same audiobook on my iPod so my brain knows, regardless of time zone, that that voice means it's time for bed.
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Everyone I know feels harassed by email which has invaded their waking and sleeping hours.
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I'm all for ambition and stretch goals. I set them for myself. But leadership isn't the same as cheerleading. Believing in something is a necessary but absolutely insufficient condition for making it come true.
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It is nobody's right to be waited on and nobody's fate to do the waiting.
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We treasure what we can measure.
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Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.
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As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter for shame but for learning
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Openness isn't the end. It's the beginning.
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In business, staying focused requires that you turn most opportunities down.
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Phones and soundtracks and Muzak and fountains replace genuine and unpredictable human contact with a seamless soundtrack from a bad movie and a cliche that makes us believe we must all be happy.
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[For constructive conflict,] we have to resist the neurobiological drive which means that we really prefer people mostly like ourselves.
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The best remote companies I've seen do almost everything online, via email and telephone. But they also get together face to face on a regular basis.
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Most people have their best ideas when they take their minds away from problems they're trying to solve.
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Building businesses takes tremendous stamina, and success isn't achieved without it.
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Bosses and leaders everywhere should cherish the people who bring them bad news, disappointing data or hard problems.
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We know - intellectually - that confronting an issue is the only way to resolve it. But any resolution will disrupt the status quo. Given the choice between conflict and change on the one hand, and inertia on the other, the ostrich position can seem very attractive.
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The truth won't set us free until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.
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