Here are 2 I like:

- If you buy things you don’t need, you’ll soon sell things you need.

-Don’t save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.

- Never test the depth of the river with both feet.

I just read this supposedly aphorism by China leader, Deng Xiao Ping.

It means that we should be flexbile.  that means that the shortest distance between two banks in a river is not always a straight line, but rather we should try to navigate by testing which stone is capable of holding our weight, and move us forward without falling. That means there is an incremental commitment to action.

I saw an article that compares the leadership and management style of Barack Obama and of our own leader.

It was all praises for Obama.  He is not afraid to select men and women wh knows more than he does.  He empowers them.  He chooses to be strategic instead of getting involved in the details, but just takes pains to inspire them. He welcomes varied input

On the other hand, our own leader was characterized as vewing people as extensions of herselfs, and make decisions for them.  She is said to be more of a project supervisor delving into work plans and timetables rather than being a leader.  She is said to be somewhat dictatorial, and does not welcome constructive criticism.  

I wish I could agree, but being micromanager is not necessarily always a bad thing.

You can choose the best, and empower them if you have these people, and these people are willing to serve you.  Obviously the office of the US president has the appeal that attracts the best.

however, if you can’t have these people with you, then you have to micromanage.  if your people cannot make good decisions even with valid inputs, or cannot make the call, then you will have to keep looking for better people, but for the meantime will have to shield them from making bad decisions.

All told, it is easy to say, but when all is said, doing it and executing it depends on circumstances, and there is no one size fits all.  By all means, be strategic and empower if you have the right people ….

This is a good series of advice:

foremost to remember: this is not a good  time to pull your weight, or ask for  a raise /promotion!

Love your job? Then save it! - (1) - FORTUNE

If you’re worried about getting laid off, here’s some consolation: So is everyone else. Follow these do’s and don’ts to raise the odds that your job stays, well, yours.

It is always good to be cautious.

But then Dell, for all his well meaning, may have offended him.

And Dell’s company is really a very successful commercial company, but hardly one known for tech or innovation or in a big way engage in research or product development.

Putin-Dell slapdown at Davos - Jan. 28, 2009

The Russian prime minister tells the Dell CEO: ‘We don’t need help. We are not invalids.’

This is a great story to tell to salespeople…

There was the time Donald douglas was competing with Boeing to sell to Eastern Airlines a couple of jet planes. Eddie Rickenbacker, CEO of Eastern, is said to have told douglas that his specifications and claims of the DC-8 plane was close to his competitors, but there was a problem with his noise suppression. He told Douglas that he can promise that his noise suppression will be better than Boeing, he can have the business.

Douglas consulted his engineers, but reported back that he could not make that promise.

Rickenbacker was said to have replied, ” I know you can’t. I just wanted to see whether you were willing to be honest in face of such a big order. You just got yourself a $135 million order!”

I just finished Time’s report in making Obama their 2008 Man of the Year, and would like to score a few salient points and memorable quotes - NOte: some quotes by the author, not necessarily of Obama’s… some I have summarized or paraphrased in my words.”

“he won by competence. In the land of the hapless, the competent man is king. At the end, he is a good speaker, but more, he convinced the Americans that he was a person who could get things done.”

“There is no magic trick on leadership. I’ve got a good nose for talent, so I hire really good people. and I’ve got a pretty healthy ego, so I’m not scared of hirign the smartest people, even smarter than me. And I’ve low tolerance for nonsense and turf battles and game-playing, and I communicate that everyday. Soover time, people start to focus on our mission, as opposed to personal ambition or grievance. And when you got some really smart people all focused on teh same mission, youc an get things done.

” We dont’ want to shoulder responsibility for problems before we have any authority to fix them.”

“The economy and the nation will only operate properly if there is broad and well-founded confidence — that wise investments will gain value, that balance sheets mean what they say, that contracts will be honored, and bills paid…”

“the basic thing to convince people is not only of being a leader, but as a straight shooter - in other words, a person who does what he says he will do.

“The most important advice Obama says he got from the former US presidents is this — It is important to carve out time to think and not send your entire day reactive. Because there’s always a crisis coming at you, there’s always a meeting you should be doing, or a group of people that you need to meet or respond to, so the ability to know what is really important, and forge that kind of discipline is key.”

Two guys work for the city: one furiously digs a hole, the other quickly fills the hole.

A confused passerby asks, “Why do you dig a hole and fill it up again?”

The digger leans on his shovel and replies, “The lazy jackass who plants the trees is sick again today.”

————-
This is of course, a joke but it is not funny when it happens to the company, and it happens a lot — not pretty obvious like this one, but how many people are doing a process that is dysfunctional, but continue to do it just because it is part of the job?

It happens.

There was a quick payoff that was possible  - sell off the company, or at least its search, and get a premium.

But the better way, and the longer way unfortunately, is to get a good CEO, and slowly solve its way back to financial health.  But the stock market has a short term outlook so something good long term happening to yahoo actually lowers its stock price!

Yahoo! Falls on News of CEO’s Deal Aversion

Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) shares were slipping Thursday after reports that new CEO Carol Bartz might be averse to an Internet search deal with Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks).

Yahoo! shares closed down 6.5% to $11.61, while Microsoft closed up 0.8% to $19.24. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, ended up 1.5%.

According to the Dow Jones Newswires, Bartz told Yahoo! employees Wednesday that her instinct was to hang on to Yahoo!’s search business. The former Autodesk (ADSK Quote - Cramer on ADSK - Stock Picks) executive said she had made no related decisions yet on the move, considered by many a crucial element in Yahoo!’s battle with Google (ADSK Quote - Cramer on ADSK - Stock Picks) for Internet dominance.

I just came across a quote ( this was a book of music) that tells succinctly and briefly the topic.  ( that is what great quotations are!)

” Difference between a professional musician and an amateur one is that the amateur keeps practicing until he gets it right, while the professional keeps practicing until he could not get it wrong.“