Harry West Quotes

I trust people, and I respect their areas of responsibility.

I have in the past tended to overestimate the amount of change I can affect in the short run and then not fully appreciate the change I can affect in the long run. And so I've learned that it's critical to think carefully about the pace of change, and it's something that I've learned the hard way.

My father builds homes. So I grew up around the idea that you can take a piece of land, and you can bulldozer it and build new homes on it. You can create something new.

People who work for me know that they have a lot of autonomy. I like to know what's going on, and I'll offer my opinion, but I want people to feel that they can say to me, "That's great that you have that opinion, but, no, we're not going to do that."

I have to trust people. There's no system of controls that can replace trust, so I need to reinforce that trust, and part of reinforcing trust is making sure that people feel accountability, and with accountability comes some degree of autonomy. You don't have one without the other.

You're surrounded by other people all the time. And you have to take responsibility if you're the eldest or one of the older siblings, and you're constantly communicating in a way that perhaps you aren't if you're in a smaller family.

I really appreciate it when people say "no" to me. I want people to understand that I'm totally supportive of what it is they're trying to do as long as we're all on the same team.

When you're leading, you're generally trying to lead change, and I think it was Roy Amara, who said about technology, "We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run." And I think the same applies to change within an organization.

Pacing is really important in an organization.

I think in most companies you're surrounded by the past. You may have a Web site or archives or a lobby that sort of shows off your work of the past. The future is not as tangible.

My parents both left school at 14, but my parents are incredibly smart, successful, thoughtful people. So one of the lessons I learned from my parents is that the fancy degree is just a foot in the door, and there are a lot of very smart people out there who don't necessarily have the fancy degrees. And given the opportunity, they can do amazing things.

I think that's just one type of leadership, which is the type I have: the need to find a new way and take responsibility for other people.

I'm the eldest of six kids, and I think that may have some significance. I think there's some correlation between maybe being the eldest and wanting to blaze a trail. I think that probably helps in some way.