John Hoover - People Quotes

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Idiot Bosses are the mutant hiccups of organizational evolution with cockroach-like immunity to calamities that wipe out truly talented and creative people.

John Hoover
Machiavellian Bosses view the universe as an enormous pyramid. There is one spot at the top and it belongs to them, by divine right.... It is not about you. And it will never be about you, except for the moment you are actually in their way.... they will leave no maneuver or weapon of mass destruction unused in their quest for the top.... They are not clueless, except for things that don't matter to them—like the health and well-being of other people or the goals and objectives of the organization.

John Hoover
Good Bosses are aware that sharing information in a thorough, timely manner makes people feel included, respected, and acknowledged for their ability to contribute.... And they are receptive to feedback.... all of the time. It is so remarkably easy that bosses who don't should undergo psychiatric examination and electroshock therapy if necessary.

John Hoover
Despite our most innocent and best intentions as leaders, the havoc we often wreak can nevertheless be enormous in terms of wasted time, money, and resources, and, more important, in alienation and disenfranchisement of the most valuable blessing of all: our people.

John Hoover
People in organizations get ticked and become increasingly cynical every time a new change initiative, continuous process improvement, leadership development program, customer service seminar, internal and/or external communication initiative is brought in; and nothing improves.

John Hoover
People who habitually speak positively of others tend to do so in all circumstances. Those who tend to criticize others in your presence and recruit you to agree with their cutting remarks will probably criticize you when you are out of the room.

John Hoover
Bullwinkle believed that business was a mechanized process and that people were incidental to that process—a disposable yet necessary annoyance to the enterprise.... Bullwinkle managed to aggravate, antagonize, and alienate everyone he dealt with, inside and outside the organization.

John Hoover
Am I an idiot?... Answer the questions honestly.... When I receive orders to cut my staff I... Cut the people who challenge me the most to think...

John Hoover
Why must intelligent people suffer from worry, fear, and anxiety while idiots sleep well at night?

John Hoover
Even the most mechanical organizations can design and deploy a people-centered culture, even if it happens one department at a time and takes a flying squirrel to champion the change.

John Hoover
Never mind the stories of how one person, against all odds, proved the rest of the world wrong. Those things happen about as often as people are struck by lightning while cashing in their winning Lotto tickets.

John Hoover
Whether you like it or not, any time two or more people get together to do anything, a culture emerges.

John Hoover
Many people who avoid talking to one another are the people that need to be engaged in conversation the most.

John Hoover
Business is first, last, and always about people.... People create the needs for business to fill; people design, produce, and deliver the goods and services...

John Hoover
MR. PEABODY: " Executives that spend their business energies and resources in places other than on promoting maximum participation, involvement, and loyalty among the people building the enterprise are usually left wondering why the competition is leaving them in the dust.... Internal customers are as vital to business success as external customers. "

John Hoover
The organizational money chart enables people to isolate because they can always point upward when someone asks, Who's in charge?... over time, the motivation to do well dwindles.

John Hoover
People participate fully, with the best they have, when they feel necessary to the outcome. People want to participate, but only if they'll feel good about what they're doing.

John Hoover
When people's hopes and expectations are built up only to be demolished, they become a lot harder to motivate...

John Hoover
There are people who think they're God.... thinking you're God transcends cluelessness.... God Bosses should be locked up... If you find it expedient to appease the God Boss, pray for pardon from your real Higher Authority and then play church.... He is playing God to compensate for a tremendous lack of confidence.... Trying to subvert or compete with a God Boss will invariably leave you the loser.

John Hoover
People in intermediate organizational positions quickly learn how they can influence decisions at the top by filtering information as it makes its way up the ladder and back down again.

John Hoover
What you want your people to carry in their hearts and minds are positive, pro-active intentions about your organizational mission and agenda. That way, they'll leave the useless, irrelevant, negative junk behind when they go home at night.

John Hoover
MR. PEABODY: People who are content and confident in their work tend to be highly motivated and eminently more productive. They collaborate more freely with peers and colleagues, and cooperate better with those they report to...

John Hoover
Organizational performance, productivity, and profitability depend more on the emotional investment people have in meeting organizational objectives than any other factor.

John Hoover
As Bullwinkle reinvented himself as a truly people-centric CEO, his people responded with the increased sense of ownership, dedication, sense of participation, loyalty, and hard work... until their success became like a snowball...

John Hoover
We define substance abuse as throwing away substance in favor of a better-looking wrapper. Running off experienced people for cheaper labor makes as much sense as peeling a banana, throwing the fruit away, and eating the peel.

John Hoover
I once failed miserably trying to market a seminar title, "How to Manage People who are Smarter, More Talented, and Productive tha Your Are." My mistake was advertising to Idiot Bosses who needed the seminar.

John Hoover
People don't learn much about themselves or others while they're succeeding in spite of poor practices. When the real outcomes reflect the real work being done, the real learning begins.

John Hoover