Margaret Heffernan Quotes

As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter for shame but for learning

Bosses and leaders everywhere should cherish the people who bring them bad news, disappointing data or hard problems.

Openness isn't the end; it's the beginning.

I don't think a true company - one that builds sustainable value - can ever only exist online or remotely.

Indeed, there seems to be some evidence not only that all love is based on illusion - but that love positively requires illusion in order to endure.

As long as it (an issue) remains invisible, it is guaranteed to remain insoluble.

It is nobody's right to be waited on and nobody's fate to do the waiting.

Silence is the language of inertia.

Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.

I don't think you ever know anyone until you see them in action.

The medical profession is - and knows itself to be - endemically conservative and conformist.

Companies don't have ideas. Only people do. And what motivates people are the bonds of loyalty and trust they develop around each other.

Most people have their best ideas when they take their minds away from problems they're trying to solve.

Building businesses takes tremendous stamina, and success isn't achieved without it.

Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.

A fantastic model of collaboration: thinking partners who aren't echo chambers.

The only consequence of their (employee) silence is that the blind (employer) lead the blind.

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.

The cell phone has become the adult's transitional object, replacing the toddler's teddy bear for comfort and a sense of belonging.

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

Making a company fit to sell may be the only way to ensure you never need a buyer.

What do you want your business to do? Make money, of course. To pay for people and supplies, to be able to grow.

You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to acknowledge.

Any fool can buy talent; only real leaders develop it.

It's a truism that love is blind; what's less obvious is just how much evidence it can ignore.

For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.

There is no more powerful weapon for change than honesty.

Everyone I know feels harassed by email which has invaded their waking and sleeping hours.

Making those around you feel invisible is the opposite of leadership.

We treasure what we can measure.

British innovation in design, in the creative arts, in engineering and manufacturing is world class.

Questions are the heart and soul of constructive conflict. They open up the exploration, bring in new information, and reframe debate. When

Certainty is no guarantor of correctness.

[For constructive conflict,] we have to resist the neurobiological drive which means that we really prefer people mostly like ourselves.

If we aren't going to be afraid of conflict, we have to see it as thinking.

In business, staying focused requires that you turn most opportunities down.

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.

When we confront facts and fears, we achieve real power and unleash our capacity for change.

thinking: a rather prosaic, low-tech concept, easily forgotten and routinely underrated. But

We have to see conflict as thinking and then get really good at it.

One of the sad truths about leadership is that, the higher up the ladder you travel, the less you know.

Noise is a buffer, more effective than cubicles or booth walls.

When we care about people, we care less about money, and when we care about money, we care less about people.

Customers who have to come back and spend, or customers who just don't want the hassle of leaving - those are the ones who are most worth attracting.

Overall, people are about twice as likely to seek information that supports their own point of view as they are to consider an opposing idea.19

The healthiest companies are always characterized by organic talent development.

Every organization has issues and concerns which are known about by many people who choose to remain silent.

Britain is famous for being great at inventing and poor at commercializing.

Speaking is what most people work on. They forget the thinking and the breathing and instead try to occupy space with sound.

A thinking partner who isn't an echo chamber ... How many of us dare to have such collaborators?