A truly excellent quote

I was reading an article today about why pissing people off is not necessarily a bad thing in a company and almost a necessity for good management and I stumbled upon a quote from Colin Powell.

Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It’s inevitable, if you’re honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you’ll avoid the tough decisions, you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you’ll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset.

Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally “nicely” regardless of their contributions, you’ll simply ensure that the only people you’ll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization.

Colin Powell

I think it’s one of the best things I’ve read in a long time, and something anyone who’s managing projects and people should read and really understand.