We need to train courageous managers as well as smart ones

Some courageous advice to ponder.

What advice do you have for those starting out on their career?

We need to train courageous managers as well as smart ones. You will be bombarded with training, case histories, processes, templates, directions, rules and regulations. In the end, what matters is your standard.

Whatever anyone tells you, we answer to one person in this world: the person we look at in the mirror every morning. Over the years our image changes, and those changes are wrought by how far we have developed our personal standards. They cannot be perfect, but if we let them slip too much, it shows. We are the best critics of how we look.

All young managers setting out on their career need to know when to disobey. Disobedience is not a whimsical choice; it is a necessary, common-sense correction of ridiculous rules. Learning when to disobey is the most important subject not taught by any university or college.

And know when to run like hell.