Not surprisingly, work-life moaners tend to be a phenomenon of below-average performers.

Getting candor right - with your reports, your peers, and your boss - is a skill that can make or break your career.

Real communication is an attitude, an environment. It is the most interactive of all processes. It requires countless hours of eyeball to eyeball, back and forth. It involves more listening than talking.

An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.

That's all managing is: just coming up with the right questions and getting the right answers.

I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that's a big deal. And if you're going to be a leader - if you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.

Don't make the process harder than it is.