Executive Warfare Quotes

“The first rule of your relationship with your boss is to understand that it’s a business transaction.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“Never ask one of your peers to carry bad news for you. If there’s going to be a disaster in any part of the organization that you’re running, whether it’s a personnel issue or a financial issue, always inform the boss yourself.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“The real rivals among your peers will be room-changers. Certain people, when they walk into a room, alter the atmosphere. Everybody else adjusts their posture, their willingness to listen, their ideas. This is not a full definition of leadership, only its most obvious symptom.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“Most ambitious people are not naturally team players. They’re ruthlessly competitive individualists.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“No matter what bosses say, it’s all about them. You are just an instrument to them. They’ll treat you well as long as you’re useful.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“You have to manage an incredibly tricky network of relationships, simultaneously, in private and in public, and in a way that announces your ability to lead.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“The relationship you have with your immediate boss is one of the oddest you’ll have in life. You generally don’t choose this person, you generally don’t care for this person, yet you have to honor and obey this person.As you rise, that relationship only becomes odder and more slippery.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“There is no such thing in this world as a pure meritocracy.Nobody gets to the top without being lucky. Luck happens to the most deserving of people and some of the most undeserving.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“Good luck often takes the form of having the right skills at the right moment.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“Playing safe is often the riskiest thing you can do in a career. If you stand still, the odds are overwhelming that the world will leave you behind.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“You must learn to take risks in a calculated way. The worst sin is not to be able to understand the risks you face, either because you are so risk-averse that you say “No” to everything or because you have no risk filter whatsoever.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“You must learn to take risks in a calculated way. The worst sin is not to be able to understand the risks you face, either because you are so risk-averse that you say “No” to everything or because you have no risk filter
whatsoever.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“Be yourself, but disarm potential critics where you can by being self-deprecating.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“If you try to fit the mold of your organization too much, the rap will be that you are too dull or too dry or too sycophantic. So you might as well be yourself and get points for having the courage of your own style.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success

“Keep your personal life private. Take the risk of people not knowing you. Anything you do reveal, trust me, will eventually come back to haunt you.”
― David F. D'Alessandro, Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning Your War for Success