Jack Gould Quotes

Never delegate. Always empower.

If you're a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.

You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, each person on a team is an extension of your leadership; if they feel empowered by you they will magnify your power to lead.

The great irony of management is that the higher up you go, the less actual control you have. When you are but a humble coder, you make the computer do exactly what you want; when you're a manager, you only hope that people understand what you want, and then trust/pray that they do it both correctly and in a timely manner.

I believe in delegating power.

I let the coach do his job.

One of my skills is knowing, 'This is where I'm needed, and this is how I'm needed and where I'm going to be in control and where I'm going to cede control and why.'

When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out.

I like being in charge of the remote control.

If you're going to give people authority and hold them responsible and ultimately accountable for their performance, you've got to get out of the way.

It was Grant's company and he made all the decisions. And that was just fine.

To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.

Managing is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you kill it, not hard enough and it flies away.

I like control.

I own 100% of everything because I like to control what I do.

Of course I have an opinion on many things but I don't micromanage.

I'm going to have to be impressed and feel confident in the people I'm handing a book to - or I'm not going to do it. Once you hand it to them, you're out. You have no control over it.

Nobody is going to delegate a lot of power to a secretary that they can't control.

Governance is a way of organizing, amplifying, and constraining power.

As far as control and stuff is concerned, I never had any more in my life than for that All-Star game in 1934.

The way you delegate is that first you have to hire people that you really have confidence in. You won't truly let those people feel a sense of autonomy if you don't have confidence in them.

To be a leader of men one must turn one's back on men.

I like being a leader in real life.

You have to protect it too, you can't let just any stupid person take it and do something demoralizing with it. At the same time, I don't believe in being so rigid about controlling what happens either.

So people ask, 'But how can you work for a friend?' I say it's because I know that the magazine is called 'O.' The bottom line is somebody has to have the final word. Oprah's not right all the time, but her record is pretty damn good. That's not to say you can't disagree.