Quotes by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Jeffrey Pfeffer

Advocates of knowledge management as the next big thing have advanced the proposition that what companies need is more intellectual capital. While that is undeniably true, its only partly true. What those advocates are forgetting is that knowledge is only useful if you do something with it.

Innovation

Intellectual

Needs

All of Robert Caro’s biographies are exceptional, in part because of Caro’s fundamental ambivalence about power. He sees its necessity and use for getting things done, even as he is often repelled by watching power at close range. His masterpiece on Robert Moses, The Power Broker, describes the evolution of Moses from idealist to pragmatist as he became one of the most powerful figures in the 20th century.

Fundamentals

Powerful

Use

Almost no one as I think most leadership books are a joke. They are, as I note in Leadership BS, frequently based on wishes and hopes rather than reality, on inspiring stories rather than systematic social science, and on “oughts” rather than “is.”

Book

Reality

Thinking

As many people know, our job market problems began long before the latest recession. We have faced literally decades with no substantive increase in median wages, and job growth, except in health and government jobs such as education, has been stagnant for a while. People are now expected to travel more and to work at odd hours to coordinate with people all over the world. Simply put, companies have prospered, but for the most part, people have not.

Growth

Long

People

Authenticity seems like sort of a joke. Actually I believe it was the late comedian George Burns who said, “if you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.” People cannot be invariant across situations and roles and, moreover, leaders need to be true not to themselves, but to what others want, need, and expect from them.

Believe

Leader

People

Being memorable equals getting picked.

Being Me

Memorable

Business school graduates from the best schools earn large salaries and frequently rise to positions of great power. It would be nice if they used that power to truly make the world a better place – which entails more than just maximizing their own organization’s profits and their own economic well-being.

Nice

School

World

Career success depends on people’s educational credentials, their length of service (job tenure), unfortunately it is still the case on their race, gender, and similarity to those in power, and of course, on their political skills. Job performance matters, but less than most people think.

Educational

People

Thinking

Consider the many financial industry executives who walked away with many millions as their organizations failed – I think the expression is “failing upward.” People also need to understand that their “technical” job performance is correlated with their career success, but again, many other factors such as educational credentials, length of service, and yes, political skills, also contribute to success. So people need to understand business and technical issues but they also need to master organizational dynamics.

Educational

People

Thinking

Doing the right thing is important, which is where strategy comes in. But doing that thing well—execution—is what sets companies apart. After all, every football play is designed to go for a huge gain. The reason it doesn’t is because of execution—people drop balls, miss blocks, go to the wrong place, and so forth. So, success depends on execution—on the ability to get things done.

Block

Football

Play

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Abnormal

Acting

Airline

Attention

Attitude

Average

Being Me

Believe

Benefits

Block

Book

Boss

Building

Business

Care

Careers

Class

Comfortable

Commitment

Communication

Competition

Country

Creativity

Dark

Decision

Differences

Done

Educational

Effort

Father

Feel Good

Focus

Football

Fundamentals

Games

Giving

Giving Up

Growth

Hard Work

Helping

Ideas

Ifs

Important

Information Sharing

Innovation

Inspiration

Inspirational

Intellectual

Intellectual Capital

Intelligent

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Jeffrey Pfeffer

Advocates of knowledge management as the next big thing have advanced the proposition that what companies need is more intellectual capital. While that is undeniably true, its only partly true. What those advocates are forgetting is that knowledge is only useful if you do something with it.

Almost no one as I think most leadership books are a joke. They are, as I note in Leadership BS, frequently based on wishes and hopes rather than reality, on inspiring stories rather than systematic social science, and on “oughts” rather than “is.”

Being memorable equals getting picked.

Career success depends on people’s educational credentials, their length of service (job tenure), unfortunately it is still the case on their race, gender, and similarity to those in power, and of course, on their political skills. Job performance matters, but less than most people think.

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Topics by Jeffrey Pfeffer

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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