Conscious Business Quotes

“Controllers want to prove that their perspective is the correct one. That proves that they are right—as a matter of self-worth, not just of accuracy. Controllers equate being right with being effective.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“To change a culture, the leaders have to change the messages people receive about what they must do to fit in. When people understand that there are new requirements for belonging, they adjust their behavior accordingly. Cultural change starts with a new set of messages. Culture-changing communication is nonverbal—the “doing” rather than the “saying”—and comes most vividly from leadership behaviors. The behavior of leaders exemplifies what people with power—and those who aspire to have it—are supposed to do. A small change in a senior manager’s behavior can send a big message.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy—it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“You can’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Leadership behaviors are one of the most critical influences on an organizational culture.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Power is the prize of responsibility; accountability is its price.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Most important, I learned that happiness and fulfillment do not come from pleasure but from meaning, from the pursuit of a noble purpose.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Our history predisposes us to see and feel certain things more than others.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Freedom does not mean doing what you want without consequences; it means having the capacity to choose, in the face of a situation, the response that is most consistent with your values.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“RESPONSE-ABILITY Response-ability is your ability to respond to a situation. You can respond to an offer by choosing to buy or not to buy. You can respond to a complaint by choosing to listen or argue. I call response-ability”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“In the hands of a mature, healthy human being—one who has achieved full humanness—power ... is a great blessing. But in the hands of the immature, vicious, or emotionally sick, power is a horrible danger. ABRAHAM MASLOW”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“In the long term, the virtuous pursuit of excellence achieves more real success than the unbridled pursuit of success.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“they never relinquished control over their inner experience. Certainly,”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. HELEN KELLER”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“If you want to change how a person thinks, give up. You cannot change how another person thinks. Give them a tool the use of which will gradually lead them to think differently.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are. THE TALMUD”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“To change a culture, the leaders have to change the messages people receive about what they must do to fit in. When people understand that there are new requirements for belonging, they adjust their behavior accordingly. Cultural change starts with a new set of messages.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Two explorers are walking across the African savanna. Suddenly, a lion appears. The first explorer takes off his knapsack, takes a pair of running shoes out of it, and puts them on. “What are you doing?” asks the second explorer. “I’m preparing to run,” says the first. “Don’t be stupid, you’ll never outrun the lion.” “I don’t need to outrun the lion,” says the first, “I only need to outrun you!”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Unconditional blame is the tendency to explain all difficulties exclusively as the consequence of forces beyond your influence, to see yourself as an absolute victim of external circumstances. Every person suffers the impact of factors beyond his control, so we are all, in a sense, victims. We are not, however, absolute victims. We have the ability to respond to our circumstances and influence how they affect us. In contrast, the unconditional blamer defines his victim-identity by his helplessness, disowning any power to manage his life and assigning causality only to that which is beyond his control. Unconditional blamers believe that their problems are always someone else’s fault, and that there’s nothing they could have done to prevent them. Consequently, they believe that there’s nothing they should do to address them. Unconditional blamers feel innocent, unfairly burdened by others who do things they “shouldn’t” do because of maliciousness or stupidity. According to the unconditional blamer, these others “ought” to fix the problems they created. Blamers live in a state of self-righteous indignation, trying to control people around them with their accusations and angry demands. What the unconditional blamer does not see is that in order to claim innocence, he has to relinquish his power. If he is not part of the problem, he cannot be part of the solution. In fact, rather than being the main character of his life, the blamer is a spectator. Watching his own suffering from the sidelines, he feels “safe” because his misery is always somebody else’s fault. Blame is a tranquilizer. It soothes the blamer, sheltering him from accountability for his life. But like any drug, its soothing effect quickly turns sour, miring him in resignation and resentment. In order to avoid anxiety and guilt, the blamer must disown his freedom and power and see himself as a plaything of others. The blamer feels victimized at work. His job is fraught with letdowns, betrayals, disappointments, and resentments. He feels that he is expected to fix problems he didn’t create, yet his efforts are never recognized. So he shields himself with justifications. Breakdowns are never his fault, nor are solutions his responsibility. He is not accountable because it is always other people who failed to do what they should have done. Managers don’t give him direction as they should, employees don’t support him as they should, colleagues don’t cooperate with him as they should, customers demand much more than they should, suppliers don’t respond as they should, senior executives don’t lead the organization as they should, administration systems don’t work as they should—the whole company is a mess. In addition, the economy is weak, the job market tough, the taxes confiscatory, the regulations crippling, the interest rates exorbitant, and the competition fierce (especially because of those evil foreigners who pay unfairly low wages). And if it weren’t difficult enough to survive in this environment, everybody demands extraordinary results. The blamer never tires of reciting his tune, “Life is not fair!”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“The same point has been verified by The Gallup Organization. Based on more than two million surveys and eighty thousand interviews, its researchers found that the fourth-most-important indicator of a high-performance organization is whether people say “yes” strongly when asked, “In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?”70 In the frenzied rhythm of today’s organizations, however, hardly anyone takes the time to express appreciation or admiration consistently.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“happiness and fulfillment do not come from pleasure but from meaning, from the pursuit of a noble purpose.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Our attention is normally drawn to that which we can see (the effect), which obscures the importance of what remains hidden (the cause). We focus on results (the having) and forget the process (the doing) necessary to achieve those results. We are even less aware of the infrastructure (the being) that underlies processes and provides the necessary capabilities for their functioning. Achieving specific results requires behaving in a way that produces such results, and behaving in such a way requires being the type of person or organization capable of such behavior. Thus, the highest leverage comes from becoming the person or organization capable of behaving in the way that produces the desired results.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Talented employees need great managers. The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“it is easy to get lost at times. When this happens, the traveler needs a simple compass to point to “true north.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Security in the midst of risk lets you enjoy life to the fullest.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“sirens’ songs of money, power, and fame shipwreck those who don’t tie themselves to the mast of essential values.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Without love, there is no teamwork; without love, there is no leadership; without love, there is no real commitment to customer service.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“The point, in fact, is to win ... in the eyes of the consumer by doing something you can be proud of.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“Profits are a consequence of customer care, employee engagement, enlightened leadership, and service orientation:”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values

“In fullness, you don’t play the game in order to succeed; you strive to succeed in order to sustain the game.”
― Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values