HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) Quotes

“Managers who aspire to be ethical must challenge the assumption that they’re always unbiased and acknowledge that vigilance, even more than good intention, is a defining characteristic of an ethical manager.”
― Harvard Business Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“the proliferation of user-developed spreadsheets and databases inevitably leads to multiple versions of key indicators within an organization. Furthermore, research has shown that between 20% and 40% of spreadsheets contain errors; the more spreadsheets floating around a company, therefore, the more fecund the breeding ground for mistakes. Analytics competitors, by contrast, field centralized groups to ensure that critical data and other resources are well managed and that different parts of the organization can share data easily, without the impediments of inconsistent formats, definitions, and standards.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“There is good evidence that when people are put under pressure, they regress to their most habituated ways of responding,”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success. Originally”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“When competencies become imprisoned, the people who carry the competencies do not get assigned to the most exciting opportunities, and their skills begin to atrophy.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“the organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as buying customers,”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“if management lets itself drift, it invariably drifts in the direction of thinking of itself as producing goods and services, not customer satisfactions.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“The seller takes cues from the buyer in such a way that the product becomes a consequence of the marketing effort, not vice versa.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“The best way for a firm to be lucky is to make its own luck.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“EVERY MAJOR INDUSTRY WAS once a growth industry.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“When technical experts mystify their audiences rather than enlighten them, they lose support—and “no” is always an easier answer than “yes.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“You apply sophisticated information systems and rigorous analysis not only to your core capability but also to a range of functions as varied as marketing and human resources.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“they are transforming their organizations into armies of killer apps and crunching their way to victory.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“When you’re attempting to discover what you do best and what you enjoy most, it’s important to realize that these two things aren’t necessarily mutually inclusive. You may get lots of positive feedback about something you’re very good at but not truly enjoy it. Conversely, you can love doing something but have no gift for it, so that achieving success requires much more energy than it makes sense to invest.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“• Which of our product or service varieties are the most distinctive? • Which of our product or service varieties are the most profitable? • Which of our customers are the most satisfied? • Which customers, channels, or purchase occasions are the most profitable? • Which of the activities in our value chain are the most different and effective?”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“There are five degrees of initiative that the manager can exercise in relation to the boss and to the system: wait until told (lowest initiative); ask what to do; recommend, then take resulting action; act, but advise at once; and act on own, then routinely report (highest initiative).”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“1. The coercive style. This “Do what I say” approach can be very effective in a turnaround situation, a natural disaster, or when working with problem employees. But in most situations, coercive leadership inhibits the organization’s flexibility and dampens employees’ motivation. 2. The authoritative style. An authoritative leader takes a “Come with me” approach: she states the overall goal but gives people the freedom to choose their own means of achieving it. This style works especially well when a business is adrift. It is less effective when the leader is working with a team of experts who are more experienced than he is. 3. The affiliative style. The hallmark of the affiliative leader is a “People come first” attitude. This style is particularly useful for building team harmony or increasing morale. But its exclusive focus on praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected. Also, affiliative leaders rarely offer advice, which often leaves employees in a quandary. 4. The democratic style. This style’s impact on organizational climate is not as high as you might imagine. By giving workers a voice in decisions, democratic leaders build organizational flexibility and responsibility and help generate fresh ideas. But sometimes the price is endless meetings and confused employees who feel leaderless. 5. The pacesetting style. A leader who sets high performance standards and exemplifies them himself has a very positive impact on employees who are self-motivated and highly competent. But other employees tend to feel overwhelmed by such a leader’s demands for excellence—and to resent his tendency to take over a situation. 6. The coaching style. This style focuses more on personal development than on immediate work-related tasks. It works well when employees are already aware of their weaknesses and want to improve, but not when they are resistant to changing their ways.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance. Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision. Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony. Democratic leaders build consensus through participation. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction. And coaching leaders develop people for the future.”
― Harvard Business School Press, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Too many people work in ways that are not their ways, and that almost guarantees nonperformance.”
― Harvard Business Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“In our studies of managers, we have found that the difference between those who take the initiative and those who do not becomes particularly evident during phases of major change, when managerial work becomes relatively chaotic and unstructured.”
― Harvard Business Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“a highly fragmented day is also a very lazy day.”
― Harvard Business Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“Most managers complain about having too little freedom in their jobs, while their bosses complain about managers’ failure to grasp opportunities.”
― Harvard Business Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)

“The very technologies that make it hard for us to maintain healthy boundaries among domains also enable us to blend them in ways—unfathomable even a decade ago—that can render us more productive and more fulfilled.”
― Harvard Business Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books)