Pfeffer Quotes & Sayings

They say asteroids hit the moon pretty often, which is how the moon gets its crater, but this one is going to be the biggest asteroid ever to hit it and on a clear night you should be able to see the impact when it happens, maybe even with the naked eye but certainly with binoculars. They made it sound pretty dramatic, but I still don't think it's worth three homework assignments. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Siebel's business development executive admitted that all of the company's acquisitions have failed and noted that an internal study indicated that "cultural conflicts" were the cause in every case.5 — Jeffrey Pfeffer

But I don't want to have to stop feeling. I really think I'd rather die than stop feeling. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Trust is about keeping commitments, but in many instances, circumstances change and organizations therefore shed commitments, things such as retiree medical benefits, pension obligations, and even employees without much remorse or maybe even hesitation. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

The stories leaders and others tell, few of which are true, are a lousy foundation on which to base any sort of science, and we know how to accomplish behavioral change and the importance of priming, informational saliency, and social networks. Producing inspiration and other good feelings doesn't last very long. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

We're all alive. We're all healthy. These are the good times. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Peter always brings death with him, along with spinach or nuts. He said he'd seen 20 cases of West Nile during the week and five deaths from it. He also said two people had died from food allergies.
"They're so hungry they're taking their chances eating foods they're seriously allergic to," he said. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

For instance, even though entrepreneurs in technology often know the statistics that about 80 percent of founders are forced out of their companies by their venture capital investors, I have never heard anyone tell me that this would happen to them. In — Jeffrey Pfeffer

The last living boy in America drops into my bedroom only he wants to be a monk. I think that pretty much sums up my life. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

We're all alive. We're all health. These are the good times. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

My existence is the only gift I have left to give, but it will have to do. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I have no privacy. But I feel so alone. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

My overall recommendation: for decades corporate policy manuals and HR departments have told people they are responsible for their own careers. It's about time people really heeded those warnings. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

One of the more gratifying things about guilt is that it makes us feel important. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Even in good times we didn't socialize with most of our neighbors. Mom says when she was growing up she did, but so many of the old families have moved out and new people moved in and neighborliness has changed. Now being a good neighbor means minding your own business. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

We can't accept that things will always be bad. If we do, we won't fight to make things better. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I am increasingly convinced that people who have power are not necessarily smarter than others. Beyond a certain level of intelligence and level in the hierarchy, everyone is smart. What differentiates people is their political skill and savvy. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Matt looked up kids from his high school class. Only three were listed as dead, but a bunch were listed as missing/presumed dead. As a test, he looked us up, but none of our names were on any of the lists. And that's how we know we're alive this Memorial Day. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Lying is common in social life, often done for benign purposes, seldom draws severe sanctions, and many of the most notable leaders, including the late Steve Jobs, were consummate prevaricators. Told with enough persistence and conviction, what was once untrue can become true, in a self-fulfilling prophecy sort of way. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Personal growth and professional development require mostly being treated like an adult, which is pretty much the opposite of what happens in most workplaces. People need to be able to make decisions. To do that effectively, they need information and training in how to use it. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Jeffrey Pfeffer and I found that many ineffective companies suffer from this disease, which we call the "smart talk trap."17 This a syndrome where companies hire, reward, and promote people for sounding smart rather than making sure that smart things are done. In such organizations, talking somehow becomes an acceptable - even a preferred - substitute for actually doing anything. Inaction is bad for any company. But it is especially devastating when innovation is the goal, because so many ideas need to be tried to find a few that might work. — Robert I. Sutton

Do people ever realize how precious life is? I know I never did before. There was always time. There was always a future. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Every day we're one day closer to death. But there's no reason to rush into it. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Lyndon Johnson (with Abraham Lincoln close behind). Johnson was able to get things done, to read other people, and to adjust his own approach accordingly. One of the reasons he has so fascinated biographer Robert Caro over the years is Johnson's consummate skill in acquiring and using influence. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Back in the time when life was easy, the Internet would have told me what I needed to know. The great thing about the Internet was it didn't care why you were asking. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Successful organizations understand the importance of implementation, not just strategy, and, moreover, recognize the crucial role of their people in this process. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

So what if I don't learn algebra?'
'Someday schools will be open again,' Mom said. 'Things will be normal. You need to do your work now for when that happens.'
'That's never going to happen,' Jon said. 'And even if schools do open up somewhere, they're not going to open up here. There aren't enough people left.'
'We don't know how many people are like us, holed up, making do until times get better.'
'I bet whoever they are, they aren't studying algebra,' Jon said. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Maybe I'm wrong," Mom said. "Maybe the world really is coming to an end."
"Should I try Fox News?" I asked.
Mom shuddered. "We're not that desperate," she said. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I hate the moon. I hate tides and earthquakes and volcanoes. I hate a world where things that have absolutely nothing to do with me can destroy my life and the lives of people I love. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

He walked out of the office to find Kevin Daley standing there. 'I like your style,' Kevin said.
Thank you,' Alex said. 'I like it, too. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

All my life I've been well behaved," she said. "It's about time I got to push people around and not apologize. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Their eyes were usually open, and they stared up at the moon that had killed them. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

We could never truly understand God's will. We have to trust God, have faith in Him, and follow the rules He gave us without ever understanding Him. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

The electricity came on for the second time today wile we were eating.
This may be a fool's paradise, but it's a paradise nonetheless. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

About 10 minutes ago, we all woke up because of this strange roaring sound. We all raced toward the sound, which turned out to be the washing machine going back on.
Who knew the rinse cycle could be so scary? — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Don't stop believing in miracles. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

The best path to power combines two things: 1) a path that not many are taking and 2) something that you are capable and comfortable with doing. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Maybe we lost the things we loved then so we could survive losing every thing else. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

tears are better if you shed them alone. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

A lot of my YA novels are about family problems. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I thought about the earth then, really thought about it, the tsunami's and earthquakes and volcanoes, all the horrors I haven't witnessed but have changed my life, the lives of everyone I know, all the people I'll never know. I thought about life without the sun, the moon, stars, without flowers and warm days in May. I thought about a year ago and all the good things I'd taken for granted and all the unbearable things that had replaced those simple blessings. And even though I hated the thought of crying in from of Syl, tears streamed down my face. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

All of Robert Caro's biographies are exceptional, in part because of Caro's fundamental ambivalence about power. He sees its necessity and use for getting things done, even as he is often repelled by watching power at close range. His masterpiece on Robert Moses, The Power Broker, describes the evolution of Moses from idealist to pragmatist as he became one of the most powerful figures in the 20th century. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Point at solutions instead of at each other. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

I'm the one not caring. I'm the one pretending the Earth isn't shattering all around me because I don't want it to be. I don't want to know there was an earthquake in Missouri. I don't want to know the Midwest can die, also, that what's going on isn't just tides and tsunamis. I don't want to have any more to be afraid of.
I didn't start this diary for it to be a record of death. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

overconfident individuals achieved higher social status, respect, and influence in groups. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

I'm turning into a rock, and in some ways that's good, because rocks last forever. But — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Deming argued that if there are performance problems and quality defects, one needs to understand how those problems arise almost naturally as a consequence of how a system has been designed - and then fix those design flaws. Put simply, attack the problems by fixing the system, not scapegoating the necessarily fallible human beings working in and operating that system - whether or not they deserved it. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

This morning the electricity came on for a few minutes, and when it did, Jonny said, "Hey, it's a black-on." This is what passes for humor around here. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I have scars. No one alive today doesn't. But Alex's scars have to be much deeper than mine. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Volumes in the series on Lyndon Johnson, including Master of the Senate and The Path Power, describe how Johnson created resources out of nothing and built a substantial power base. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Great, the worlds coming to an end and we're fixing it with Band-Aids — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Sometimes the rules don't work. Sometimes the rules cause the anarchy. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

It was easier to agree than to tell the truth. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Systematic research supports the message of these cases. As noted in an article in the New York Times, even in the most extreme circumstances - like the financial crisis - directors bore little consequence for their poor decisions. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

The darkest sky is filled with stars, that the sun casts its warmth on the coldest day. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

While it is almost certainly true that leaders ought to eat last, the evidence on the ever-widening difference between CEO and average employee pay and the enormous severance packages leaders obtain even as front-line workers see their economic well-being eviscerated makes a mockery of the idea that leaders do anything other than take care of themselves. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Which means every tomorrow is going to be worse than every today. Why feel sorry for myself today when tomorrow's bound to be worse? — Susan Beth Pfeffer

So we each had a piece of chocolate for dessert. I'd almost forgotten how much I love chocolate, how there's something about it that makes life a little more wonderful. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Even the rats are drowning,' Alex said.
Nah,' Kevin said. 'They've been taking swimming lessons at the Y. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

It wouldn't be New Year's without a resolution. I've resolved to take a moment every day for the rest of my life to appreciate what I have. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

That's the function of big brothers ... to help their little sisters when their worlds are collapsing. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Here's the funny thing about the world coming to an end. Once it gets going, it doesn't seem to stop. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's would still be open. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Trust in tomorrow ... Every day of your life, there's been a tomorrow. I promise you, there'll be a tomorrow. - Alex Morales to Miranda Evans — Susan Beth Pfeffer

But today when I am 17 and warm and well fed, I'm keeping this journal for myself so I can always remember life as we knew it, life as we know it, for a time when I am no longer in the sunroom. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I had finished the first draft of 'Life As We Knew It' before Katrina hit, and it was startling to see things I wrote about actually happening in the real world. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Every day when I go to sleep I think what a jerk I was to have felt sorry for myself the day before. My Wednesdays are worse than my Tuesdays, my Tuesdays way worse than my Tuesday of a week before. Which means every tomorrow is going to be worse than every today. Why feel sorry for myself today when tomorrow's bound to be worse?
It's a hell of a philosophy, but it's all I've got. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Profits are related to customer retention. Customer retention is related to employee retention. Employee retention may or may not be related to benefits, but benefits could be part of the package that causes people to stay and
by the way
engage in discretionary effort.. If you go into any organization that's customer-facing, you can tell in five minutes when the employees are feeling abused. They retaliate on the customers. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

One cannot control the actions of others, but we are responsible for what we do. People say things such as, "I can't do this," "it is not really me," "this makes me uncomfortable," etc. People, simply put, opt out of playing the game or doing so in a way that will make them successful. So get over yourself, and do what you need to do - and what, by the way, others around you are doing, to become more powerful. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Many of our students want to do what they have done and that has made them successful thus far in their lives: play by the rules, and do what is expected. But as much social science research and writing by Malcolm Gladwell, among others, make clear, the rules are mostly created by those already in power so obtaining power often entails standing out and breaking rules and social conventions. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Possibly the biggest issue, however, is that performance appraisals focus managers attention on precisely the wrong thing: individual people. As W. Edwards Deming, the father of the quality movement, taught a long time ago, company performance often results more from variations in systems than from the individuals doing the work. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Carlos was probably somewhere warm, eating three meals a day, and sleeping in a real bed. That was the life — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Bad times made for big secrets. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Librarians! Librarians always know how to find out things. That was their job even before the Internet. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Well, no one says you can be happy about everything," I said. "I know I should be glad for you, Megan, but frankly I think you're crazy. And if Reverend Marshall is making you this way, I think he's evil. This life, this everyday existence, is the one gift we're given. To throw it away, to want to be dead, to me that's the sin. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Survivors have responsibilities. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

We may not have a future, but you can't deny we have a past. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

But it's our curse and our blessing to remember the past and to know there's a future.
- Charlie — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Authenticity seems like sort of a joke. Actually I believe it was the late comedian George Burns who said, "if you can fake sincerity, you've got it made." People cannot be invariant across situations and roles and, moreover, leaders need to be true not to themselves, but to what others want, need, and expect from them. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

Most organisations say they want creativity, but really they do not. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

I thought about how unlikely it was I would ever meet any guy,fall in love, get married, have babies. Especially since I was going to spend the rest of my life in the cellar, where, in the not too distant future, I'd turn into a toadstool. I hoped I'd be the poisonous variety. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life's sloppy ... You think you know how tomorrow's going to be, you've made your plans, everything is set in place, and then the unimaginable happens. Life catches you by surprise. It always does. But there's good mixed in with the bad. It's there. You just have to recognize it. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I wonder if I cry whether my tears would be gray. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

When I came back, I found Mom sobbing at the kitchen table ... Then I asked her what had happened.
'Nothing,'she said. 'I was thinking about that man ... I started thinking about ... if he and his wife and their other child are okay, and I don't know. It just got to me.'
'I know,' I said, because I did know. Sometimes it's safer to cry about people you don't know than to think about people you really love. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

People tell me the Netflix series, House of Cards, is sort of like my class come to life. The movie Margin Call portrays the realities of hierarchical relationships and rivalries beautifully, and how people respond when under pressure. Gandhi and Long Walk to Freedom both have the virtue of presenting larger-than-life figures in a more realistic way, showing their flaws and contradictions - their humanity - in a way that is very helpful. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

You are more likely to acquire power by narrowing your focus and applying your energies, like the sun's rays, to a limited range of activities in a small number of domains. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

I'm 16 years old. Let me get my learner's permit first. then I'll worry about lifetime commitments — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Because if I let myself feel the pain and the anger, I think it might kill me. Or I might kill someone else. I know it's wrong to feel that way about God and I know its's wrong to not feel anything. I hate it. I don't hate God. I hate not loving Him. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

He taught me to trust in tomorrow. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

The class focuses intensely on making people more comfortable with doing a wider range of things - such as networking, self-promotion, building their own personal brand, cleverly acquiring resources, getting known - that they may have been less comfortable with before. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

When I'm in the water I feel as though nothing bad has happened. I think about the fish, how they don't know what's going on. Their world is unchanged. Actually it's probably better now to be a tuna or a sardine or a salmon. Less chance of ending up as somebody's lunch. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

The only way you can be the best at something is to be the best you can be. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

What we were concerned about - what seems to be happening now - is volcanoes, — Susan Beth Pfeffer

What interests me more than dramatic heroics are the domestic things: How do people do laundry and find food when the world is about to end? — Susan Beth Pfeffer

Just in case the world ends tomorrow," she said. "We might as well enjoy today. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

I am not sure any of the material in Leadership BS would be helpful for small companies and certainly not their owners. Of course, even owners have bosses and need to worry about keeping their jobs - so Power might be more appropriate. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

I wondered how many people had sung By the dawn's early light' yesterday and were dead today. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

People will envy you to the extent that you start out with a group of people and you rise up the organization faster than them. Get over what your peers are thinking about you because your peers are also your competitors. — Jeffrey Pfeffer

I live about 60 miles northwest of New York City, and whenever there's news of a big snowstorm coming, everyone runs for the store. The perishable items are usually the first things to go, which doesn't make sense because they perish. — Susan Beth Pfeffer

What's the point of God making us human if He doesn't want us to act like we're human?' 'To see if we can rise above our natures,'Megan said. — Susan Beth Pfeffer