Robert Townsend Quotes

"Consultants are people who borrow your watch and tell you what time it is, and then walk off with the watch."
-Robert Townsend

"One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people's excuses for failure."
-Robert Townsend in Managers quotes.

""Top" management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I'm still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is."
-Robert Townsend in Management quotes.

"True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders."
-Robert Townsend in Leadership quotes.

"A good manager doesn't try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you're the boss and your people fight you openly when they think that you are wrong - that's healthy."
-Robert Townsend in Health quotes.

"Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun."
-Robert Townsend

"The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain."
-Robert Townsend in Actions quotes.

"Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise."
-Robert Townsend

"If people are coming to work excited...if they're making mistakes freely and fearlessly...if they're having fun...if they're concentrating on doing things, rather than preparing reports and going to meetings...then somewhere you have a leader."
-Robert Townsend