Henry Kravis Quotes

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

I think that the CEO is responsible for setting the vision, for articulating the mission, and for building a team of powerful evangelists that share that mission and that passion, because no one person can do anything by themselves.

Even as an 18-year-old, I had to grow comfortable with my leadership style, which is that I was really impatient with under-motivated people - extremely impatient, to the point where I was counterproductive as a manager of underproductive people. And that hasn't really changed. If people need to be motivated, I'm no good.

Star performers are my favorite to manage and lead. Star performers are critical to any organization, and the key is how can you capture their heart-share and their mind-share when they're on this fast track.

A CEO needs to build their own team.

I used to think business was 50 percent having the right people. Now I think it's 80 percent.

I described the CEO job as knowing what to do and getting the company to do what you want. Designing a proper company culture will help you get your company to do what you want in certain important areas for a very long time.

Great companies in the way they work, start with great leaders.

Managers develop organisations; leaders develop people.

In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first... The first object of any good system must be that of developing first class men.

Few people would doubt that Mark Zuckerberg would build a great product. But I, at least, would never have expected him to become so great at hiring, motivating, managing, and ultimately getting whatever it is his company needs from people.

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

I fell in love with the topic of leadership. For three decades, that has been a major focus of my hands-on work: listening to and working with leaders, their teams and their organizations.

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.

Developing a good, healthy culture is extremely important at a startup. Culture reflects the essence of a startup's operation because it directly affects the success of a company's hiring practices and overall strategy.

Regarding managing people, I am lucky to be surrounded by good, smart friends, some of whom own their own companies or have worked in ones and can lend experience.

You have to let the team develop. You can't say, 'Oh, I got empty seats, I'm going to change the team.' It just doesn't work that way.

Whether you're a founder, a leader, or an individual contributor, building a strong team is critical to your success.

I'm proud that I've been able to attract an incredible team to work with me.

Good managers ensure good outcomes, but great leaders can deliver a vision by getting people to work together.

One of the most important jobs of a great leader is to attract great talent.

A policy of knowing your replacement is one of the best ways to drive a growth culture. It anticipates and eliminates the most harmful politics in leadership for an expanding company and instantly sets the right tone for a high-talent, growth-mindset executive team.

The task of the leaders must be to provide or create for them a strong framework within which they can learn, work hard, be productive and be rewarded accordingly. And this is not easy to achieve.

I was a pretty good coach and working with marketing was like coaching.

Most management systems have to do with establishing trust and getting people to cooperate. They're not really about expertise or science.