Business in Conflict

1/19/2011

The CEO of a multi-billion dollar book publishing company posted his leadership credo as "business is conflict."  He went on to explain by saying that, "you don't get excellence by saying yes.  You may get love but not excellence." 

His thesis was that leaders and managers achieve excellence by saying no - no to performance that isn't to the expected standard - no, we will not pay that much for technology upgrades without justification - no, we will not buy that widget until the staff has proven that it is imperative that we own it and - no, we will not hire the additional staff person until we are sure that this person will make a justifiable difference in our product or service.

Yes, is always the easy answer because it makes folks happy, but that love is short-lived.  Staff must know beyond a doubt that yes is hard to achieve without well thought out justification and documentation.  Otherwise, the organization quietly slips towards mediocrity.