Systematic decision review also shows executives their own weaknesses, particularly the areas in which they are simply incompetent. In these areas, smart executives don't make decisions or take actions. They delegate.

The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let the successor run the company.

Systematic decision review also shows executives their own weaknesses, particularly the areas in which they are simply incompetent. In these areas, smart executives don't make decisions or take actions. They delegate.

Listening (the first competence of leadership) is not a skill, it is a discipline. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut.

The most important decisions in organizations are people decisions, and yet only the military, and only recently, has begun to ask, "If we assign this general to lead this base, what do we expect him to accomplish?"

The productivity of people requires continuous learning, as the Japanese have taught us. It requires adoption in the West of the specific Japanese Zen concept where one learns to do better what one already does well.

Growth that adds volume without improving productivity is fat. Growth that diminishes productivity is cancer.