If I had my way, I wouldn’t do annual reviews, if I felt that everybody would be more honest about positive and negative feedback along the way. I think the annual review process is so antiquated. – Carol Bartz
Managing is a tough job. When you’re young, you just think it’s a natural progression – I’m good at this, so I’m going to be good at that – and it’s not that way at all. – Carol Bartz
Everybody on my team – I couldn’t do their jobs. I could not. I really mean that. So I figured out early on that the way you’re successful is you hire really successful people. – Carol Bartz
I hug employees all the time. I’m a huge contact person. Touch is an extremely important part of the human condition. – Carol Bartz
My husband doesn’t listen because his mother didn’t make him listen. What am I going to do, beat him? I mean: firstborn of a southern family? Firstborn boy? Please. I mean, I love him to death, but is he going to take the garbage out? No. – Carol Bartz
Organizations can get in the way of innovation, because if people are all bound up, and if they don’t know if they get to make the decision or somebody else, and if they do, what happens to them, and so on and so forth. – Carol Bartz
Back when ‘social’ had a broad definition, you could almost say that Yahoo Finance chat was the first social product. – Carol Bartz
I’m kind of a Midwestern snob. I think we’re just nice people and have a great work ethic. – Carol Bartz
When trouble strikes, which it always does – bad economy, bad quarter, activists, takeover – when trouble strikes, those board members who don’t understand or are not committed are not helpful. – Carol Bartz
Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 – the iPod came out 4 years later. 3 years after that is the first time his market cap grew. It took 7 years. – Carol Bartz
Any leader needs to be constantly interested in what’s going on in the world, and constantly ready – even when things are going well – to change. – Carol Bartz
I like banks because they keep my money safe, but I don’t want to talk about banks 12 times a year. – Carol Bartz
My first day as a manager was at Digital Equipment in Atlanta. I was a sales rep. I was promoted from among my peers, so one day I was a peer, and the next day I was their boss. – Carol Bartz
It’s very, very hard to affect culture. And you can get surprised thinking you’re farther down the path of change than you really are because, frankly, most of us like the way things are. – Carol Bartz
I became a sales manager at Digital Equipment, promoted from within the sales team. My peers were less than excited that I had gotten the job, especially one of my male peers who said he just wasn’t going to work for a woman. – Carol Bartz
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. I never thought I’d be where I am. I never thought I’d have bling that I bought. – Carol Bartz
I manage through a sense of humor. We all work hard, and work has to be a really interesting, fun place. And that has to start at the top. – Carol Bartz
If people really don’t want ads, they can go find their information however it is they want. It’s a free world on that matter. – Carol Bartz
My grandmother raised me. She was a real no-nonsense but very funny lady. I drove tractors, made hay, milked cows, fed the chicken, fed the pigs. – Carol Bartz
I didn’t have my first child until I was 40. I actually learned about motherhood from management. – Carol Bartz
