Michael Korda Quotes

We treat our people like royalty. If you honor and serve the people who work for you, they will honor and serve you.

The most valuable lesson I learned in dealing with the ups and downs was to invest in my employees - to do all I could for them when the times were good.

Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader.

One of the best parts of working at 'O' is that people just love to send us stuff.

I expect that our associates will walk with a little more bounce in their step and understand that this company is behind them and has respect for them.

Research indicates that employees have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.

Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.

Many of my staff have been with me for over 20 years. I have a great team, and I make sure they feel respected and appreciated.

If the only reason people are coming in and doing anything in your office is because you're giving them a paycheck, I'm not sure you have the most productive workplace there.

I've been asked a number of times what was my proudest accomplishment when I was still very active in the day-to-day affairs of Southwest Airlines. I always said job security for our people.

No matter what the figures are in the workplace in terms of wages, you either feel a valued member of your staff, or you don't.

Every employee needs to know that there's somebody out there that they serve. And when we don't let people know that for one reason or another, we're depriving them of a fulfilling job.

I am not a great fan of serious, heavy writing. I prefer simple, short sentences, light on prose.

Most CEOs walk around the office like we own the place, without realizing that the place itself isn't worth owning: a business's value comes from the people who walk out the door every night, who have to decide each morning whether to walk back in. One of the simplest things you can do as a leader is honor their choice and appreciate their work.

Union Rule 26: Every employee must win 'Worker of the Week' at least once, regardless of gross incompetence, obesity or rank odor.

I don't want to indulge myself in the luxury of writing beautiful paragraphs just for the sake of making beautiful writing. That doesn't interest me. I want everything to be essential.

Seems Google management figured out it is cheaper, happier and more productive to take care of their employees and create a positive work environment than to burn them to a crisp, make them afraid of the future, and send them off into the highways and byways of California in search of a Taco Bell for lunch.

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to.

If you take care of your workers they'll take care of your business.

We want to keep the company healthy and its employees happy, and we want to keep them on the job and productive.

Clear writing is universal. People talk about writing down to an audience or writing up to an audience; I think that's nonsense. If you write in a way that is clear, transparent, and elegant, it will reach everyone.

Of one thing the reader can be certain: the more easily anything reads, the harder it has been to write.

A boss wants to pay for results, an employee wants recognition for effort. If a boss recognizes effort, they will get even better results.

The fastest way to disengage an employee is to tell him his work is meaningful only because of the paycheck.

I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing — to be clear.