rules for boss engagement

As a CEO, I post my four "rules for boss engagement" on my office door and on internal blog sites. The basic idea is that before you approach me, you should declare your purpose:

1. You're bringing me news that does not require action. Don't show up with bad news after 4:00 on a Friday, unless it's business critical.
2. You want a decision from me. Bring possible solutions to the problem - and your thoughtful recommendation.
3. You want personal advice and counsel from me (not as the boss, and without expecting action on my part - it's your job to solve the problem).
4. You want to complain about someone. Bring that person along with you, or we won't have a happy meeting. 

I explain that I'm not trying to be arrogant or unresponsive. I care immensely about the people who work for me, but I have a company to run. If you want me to also do your job, don't expect to be too thrilled with the outcome.

R. Dixon Thayer

As quoted in When Your Colleague Is a Saboteur by Bronwyn Fryer. HBR Case Study. November 2008. Harvard Business Review.

just human nature

Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature. 

Max Brooks

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. 2006. 

the righter you sound, the madder I get

“The righter you sound, the madder I get.”

…When the origin of an idea is more important than the idea itself, that’s a matter of pride.

Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges

The Servant Leader: Transforming You Heart, Head, Hands & Habits. 2003. J.Countryman

a kind of memorial

I feed the wire through the hole in the flange at the filter’s base, twist it with the pliers. It’s safety wire. Holds the filter on in case. All to spec. FAA regs. Wouldn’t want the oil filter to vibrate loose, fall off, spill all the oil midair and the engine tears apart. Has happened. They used to say all FAA rules resulted from a real accident. So the .032 mil wire is maybe a kind of memorial to some pilot. Maybe his family too.

Peter Heller 

The Dog Stars. 2012.

think of failure

If you're an MBA-trained manager or executive, the odds are you were never, at any point in your educational or professional career given permission to fail, even on a "little bet." Your parents wanted you to achieve, achieve, achieve — in sports, the classroom, and scouting or work. Your teachers penalized you for having the "wrong" answers, or knocked your grades down if you were imperfect, according to however your adult figures defined perfection. Similarly, modern industrial management is still predicated largely on mitigating risks and preventing errors, not innovating or inventing. 

But entrepreneurs and designers think of failure the way most people think of learning. As Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy has shown through her research about how expert entrepreneurs make decisions, they must make lots of mistakes to discover new approaches, opportunities, or business models. 

Peter Sims

"The No. 1 Enemy of Creativity: Fear of Failure." Harvard Business Review (HBR Blog). 10/5/2012.