People, to maintain their self-esteem, tend to believe they are above average on all positive qualities - height, income, intelligence, sense of humor, negotiating ability, you name it. The problem is that if we are going to really build our… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
Trust is about keeping commitments, but in many instances, circumstances change and organizations therefore shed commitments, things such as retiree medical benefits, pension obligations,… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
Business school graduates from the best schools earn large salaries and frequently rise to positions of great power. It would be nice if they… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
The individual attributes of warmth and competence are often perceived to be negatively correlated. That doesn't mean they actually are, but that's how people… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
Today, if the CEO thinks it's a good idea, it's done everywhere; if the CEO thinks it's a bad idea, it's done nowhere. We ought to be more agnostic and open to learning things that we didn't expect - and the only way to do that is to try things and be open-minded about how well they are working. And… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share
Almost no one as I think most leadership books are a joke. They are, as I note in Leadership BS, frequently based on wishes… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
Authenticity seems like sort of a joke. Actually I believe it was the late comedian George Burns who said, "if you can fake sincerity,… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
Everyone faces defeats, setbacks, reversals of fortune. But just like water wearing away rock, persistence triumphs. Resilience is one of the most important qualities… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
Many companies believe incentives, financial incentives, are the answer to every problem or issue. But people are motivated by much more than money. In particular, people like to feel good about themselves and maintain their self-esteem. If companies spent more time working on people's feelings of self-worth, they wouldn't have to try, often unsuccessfully, to bribe people to do work. — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share
Leaders are not modest, and more importantly, the extensive social science research on narcissism, self-promotion, and similar constructs shows that these qualities and behaviors… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
I completely reject the idea that working adults need to be treated like infants or worse and not told the realities, harsh or not, about the world of work. Keeping people in the dark and filling them with stories that are either mostly fabricated, unusually rare, or both, doesn't do anyone any good. It is one of the reasons that… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share
The stories leaders and others tell, few of which are true, are a lousy foundation on which to base any sort of science, and… — Jeffrey Pfeffer Copy Share Image
