Herding Tigers Quotes

“creative people appear to be difficult because the expectations for a project keep changing midstream, after they’ve done a tremendous amount of conceptual work that will have to be rehashed just to get back to the starting line. Is it possible that what comes across as ego is merely a response to their craft’s— which they’ve spent years mastering and cultivating—being challenged at a moment’s notice by someone who has given their hard work a total of ten seconds of distracted consideration before scrapping it?”
― Todd Henry, Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need

“A company in which anyone is afraid to speak up, to differ, to be daring and original, is closing the coffin door on itself.”
― Todd Henry, Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need

“A good leader of creative people accomplishes the objectives while developing the team’s ability to shoulder new and more challenging work. Both are essential. If you accomplish your objectives, but the team requires your direct input on every decision, then you’ve failed to hit the mark; you are a bottleneck, and your team is probably cursing your overcontrolling nature behind your back. If your team consistently hits its objectives but isn’t growing creatively, you’re just teaching your people how to do things without teaching them why the tactics work. They will eventually grow bored and leave.”
― Todd Henry, Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need