Executive Challenges Quotes

It's the fate of every executive. He gets in on promises and finds that things can't be fulfilled as he hoped.

I see more clearly than ever, and I thought I saw before, that congressional life is not the best introduction to the President's house. Great and fully equipped as the general [James Garfield] is, there are embarrassments growing out of his long and brilliant career in Congress, which Jackson and Lincoln, and Grant, and myself, escaped.

You need to have a great support around you, people that empathise, understand and yet support, because these CEO jobs are all-consuming.

More often than not, CEOs are conflict-avoidant because their role is to define vision and strategy than it is to get into confrontations with negative and toxic people which they can't stand.

Presidents have to learn how to adapt. Every president comes into the job; it's different than they expect. They must adapt.

The major challenge of most executives is not understanding the practice of leadership - it is practicing their understanding of leadership.

The prime occupational hazard of a manager is superficiality.

You have three options [as a CEO]: Either you die, you get fired, or you retire. Two of those options I don’t care for.

Anyone who ends up being a leader of a large complicated organization, whether you're a male or a female, you're working an immense amount of hours, and you can't do everything. You can't have complete work/life balance.

There's a trend in Hollywood at the moment where studio executives are coming from more of a marketing background, and that is challenging. I think one of the problems of marketing executives is that they don't understand how films get made and they're a bit nervous. And that is not the most efficient way to be a studio executive.

Cabinet members are soon overwhelmed by the insistent demands of running their departments. On the whole, a period in high office consumers intellectual capital; it does not create it....The less ministers know at the outset, the more dependent they are on the only sources of available knowledge; the permanent officials.

When you face the shareholders, then you can feel the heat is on you. For 20 years I got to answer to my shareholders. It's not easy.

No CEO examining books today understands what the hell is going on.

Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.

You know, you go home and you try on a new mascara, and I guess a male CEO can't do that.