Carol Bartz Quotes

This business is always changing. If you're going to be a leader, you've got to take chances.

One of the best paradoxes of leadership is a leader's need to be both stubborn and open-minded. A leader must insist on sticking to the vision and stay on course to the destination. But he must be open-minded during the process.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.

Strategy is, at some level, the ability to predict what's going to happen, but it's also about understanding the context in which it is being formulated. And then you have to be open-minded to the fact that you're not going to get it right at the very beginning.

Leaders are not dogmatic. They are principled and know that change is never easy, but when it's necessary, they must lead.

Leaders have to be intensely aware and be bold and flexible enough to adjust course ahead of impending changes.

Flexibility in a time of great change is a vital quality of leadership.

The manager, in today's world, doesn't get paid to be a steward of resources, a favored term not so many years ago. He or she gets paid for one and only one thing: to make things better (incrementally and dramatically), to change things, to act - today.

Change before you're forced to change.

The test of truth in life is not whether we can remember what we learned in school, but whether we are prepared for change.

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

Leadership does not depend on being right.

As the facts change, change your thesis. Don't be a stubborn mule, or you'll get killed.

The No. 1 criticism most managers get is that they don't ever change or wait too long to make changes... It's very simple: Either things are performing or they're not. And if it's not performing, we have to make changes.

Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.

Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it underscores the need for leadership.

I never stop making sure that what I say is the best of what could be said about a particular thing. It's a constant evolution. If I planted a tree one way yesterday, and somebody tells me of a better way to plant a tree, I think, 'You know, they're right, that's better.' Then I change my way to accommodate the new way of planting trees.

A president, like a college freshman, can't know in advance which questions he'll have to answer or what topics he'll have to master. He has to be flexible, supple, and responsive. He has to be comfortable with multiple-choice.

So key for making smart decisions is a mindset that actively monitors and is open to shifting tides and new information, one that is acutely aware that the interplay between our environment and its outcomes is ever in flux.

It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it.

When you deal with change, you have a couple choices: you can lead it and make the rules, or you can be a fast follower, or you can be a slow follower.

When a plan or strategy fails, people are tempted to assume it was the wrong vision. Plans and strategies can always be changed and improved. But vision doesn't change. Visions are simply refined with time.

One of the things I like enormously about Bob Weinstein is that that he's the only studio head I have ever known who will change his mind and say he was wrong.

If you're in such a position of power and your ego is such that this is not possible, then its essential to have a small cadre of very bright, committed people who are questioning, exploring and understanding these emerging concepts.