It is the season when many of us stop to reflect about what happened in the past year and start looking ahead to the next -- and hope that we've learned something to help us and those we care about live happier lives.  In that spirit, I offer my "top 10" list.

Let me tell you about why I started the list.  I have been teaching courses on introduction to organizational behavior for about 25 years now.  I've learned that after several months of teaching and talking with young people about what it takes to build effective and humane organizations (and to survive organization's that aren't), it helps us get a bit of closure if I step back and talk about some things that I believe most vehemently and people and workplaces.  Many of these ideas are evidence-based.  But some are also simply beliefs that I try to follow (and have found that when I fail to do so, I am worse for it, as are the people around me).  I offer them without explanation, although I have discussed some in detail here already and will talk about others in the future. I would be curious to see reactions, additions, and subtractions -- and if you have have your own list, please add a comment or a link.

Ten Things I Believe

Bob Sutton

1.   Sometimes the best management is no management at all -- first do no harm!

2. Indifference is as important as passion.

3.  In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you can have freedom from others, but you can't have both at the same time.

4.  Learning how to say smart things and give smart answers is important. Learning to listen to     others and to ask smart questions is more important.

5.  You get what you expect from people. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behavior;   self-interest is a learned social norm, not an inherent feature of human behavior.

6.  Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centered jerk.

7.  Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that you will eventually start acting like them.

8.  The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power.

9.  Err on the side of optimism and positive energy in all things.

10. Work is an over-rated activity.

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he studies the links between managerial knowledge and organizational action, innovation, and organizational performance.  He has authored several books including most recently (with Jeffrey Pfeffer) “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management” (Harvard Business School Press, 2006). His next book, “The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t¸” will be published by Warner in early 2007.  He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

This article is posted under the creative commons license.

Comments (1) >>

One Thing to Add
written by Paul Williams, January 12, 2007

I like your list a lot. I would not delete or change anything on it. It provides a good roadmap of things to do or avoid in aiming for success in organizational leadership. There is one thing I would add, even though that would be number 11. That one thing, itself a framework which complements almost any other good leadership idea, is the phrase "It's all about the people". I don't know who said that first, or if it's one of those things that become self-evident with experience. When I facilitate leadership classes, that phrase is the first point I make in my summary during the last session. It seems to encapsulate all the "learnings" and discussions that came out of our times together.

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