When you expect your employees to act like adults, they generally do. If you treat them like children, then get ready for your company to turn into o… - Ben Horowitz

If you treat them like children, then get ready for your company to turn into one big Barney episode.

The more brains working on the hard problems, the better.

One excellent way to develop a high standard is to interview people who you see doing a great job in their field. Find out what their standard is and add it to your own. Once you determine a high yet achievable performance bar, hold your executive to that high standard even if you have no idea how they might achieve it.

When founders come in to pitch our firm — one as the CEO and the other as president — the conversation often goes like this: “Who is running the company?” “We are,” they both say. “Who makes the final decision?” “We do.” “How long do you expect to run that way?” “Forever.” “So you’ve decided to make it more difficult for every employee to get work done so that you don’t have to decide who is in charge, is that right?