Gordon Bethune > Quotes

“Monday-morning quarterbacking not only defeats the purpose of training employees to do their jobs, it also makes them unhappy and teaches them not to trust themselves. They feel constrained and restricted. With no options, they either blindly follow rules or give up and work depressed. You don’t want either of those scenarios.”
― Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback

“Never forget: Businesses are run by people; businesses are made up of people. So at the root of whatever problems you have in your business, you’ll find people.”
― Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback

“I’m an executive. That means I execute—I do stuff. I don’t just talk, I don’t sit around and make pronouncements, I get things done.”
― Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback

“We broke the plan into four parts: a market plan, a financial plan, a product plan, and, most important, a people plan.”
― Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback

“But I think a lot of managers and executives trying to solve problems miss the forest for the trees by forgetting to look at their people—not at how much more they can get from their people or at how they can more effectively manage their people. I think they need to look a little more closely at what it’s like for their people to come to work there every day.”
― Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback