Quotable Leadership and Management Advice from Kleiner Perkins Partner, Randy Komisar
"One of the most important lessons I learned is that people are not fungible. I've had bosses who said, "We're not going to pay well, incent, or develop our people because there's always somebody to take their place." The problem with that logic is, while it might be statistically true, it fundamentally indicates a culture that is not going to invest in anybody. Nobody is going to become very effective.
The other piece of leadership that somebody tried to teach me, which I dismissed, is manage by the numbers--if you manage by the numbers everything else takes care of itself. Just get people to execute, measure, hold people accountable, and that's enough. That's not enough. Yes, it is important to instill accountability in organization, it's important to have good metrics, to discipline the process, reward people, and withdraw those rewards when they're not being effective. But that won't get you greatness.
When I am most successful, it's because the people around me have made me successful. It comes down to the fact that success is created by a group of people and not by any single individual. How do you get people to come together around a goal and objective and be great? It's establishing a sense of common purpose. Greatness doesn't come from a tactical sense of execution. Greatness comes having a vision that goes beyond yourself and even beyond the organization.
