Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

Managers don't have as much leverage as they used to have. We can't really be the boss.

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.

I've got a really great team around me. They're the ones that are in the restaurants on a day to day basis. Anyone that's good can't be stifled in any way. I don't baby people.

I always encourage employees to feel free to raise any issues that prevent them from getting good work done.

I'd like to build a way for people doing good work to connect, to learn from each other, protect each other, and then I want to get out of their way.

I always want to have a personal relationship with everybody that works for me.

A good leader should focus on making sure everyone is being given the tools to do their job, not just expecting - poof! - that they're going to produce great work.

I always look at it that I work with my employees as opposed to them working for me.

Companies used to be able to function with autocratic bosses. We don't live in that world anymore.

The culture at Valve is pretty much crowdsourced. The handbook is a wiki. One of the first things we say to new hires is, 'You have to change something in the handbook.'

We have a training period; we have certain guidelines and structure. You can't hire talented people and stifle them. That's not the way it works anymore.

Research indicates that employees have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.

The way I would measure leadership is this: of the people that are working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that the company is theirs?

I try to motivate people and align our individual incentives with organizational incentives. And then let people do their best.

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.

It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

Microsoft's culture is very strong.

When entire companies embrace a growth mindset, their employees report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive far greater organizational support for collaboration and innovation.

The organization reflects the behavior and characteristics of the CEO, and that establishes the culture. Foster an environment of open communication, and the organization inherits a culture of open communication.

I think Tesla doesn't sound like it has a very collaborative culture.

I'm not a micromanager. I don't believe in that.

As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around.

You can inspire people to give you greatness, or you can micro-manage them into your own one specific kernel of an idea. To me, I think that when you inspire people to give their best, then you're going to get the best result.

Good work is always done in defiance of management.

I'm not that keen on fierce dictatorship. I think that sort of the point of working with somebody is them coming up with stuff and feeling free to do that.