Top 40 Daniel H. Pink Quotes

I really think that in the media world that we live in now, especially for writers, it has to be a conversation. With very few exceptions, it can’t be this one-way, ‘Here I am on the mountaintop preaching to all of you great unwashed readers in hopes of saving you.’ It doesn’t work that way.

Empathy is about standing in someone else‘s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.

I’m not a huge fan of the concept of ‘passion‘ when it comes to careers. Instead of trying to answer the daunting question of, ‘What’s your passion?’ it’s better simply to watch what you do when you’ve got time of your own and nobody‘s looking.

Succeeding makes us feel good. But beating someone else makes us feel really good. Comparing ourselves to others and coming out on top creates a sense of entitlement. And when we feel entitled, we cheat more because, of course, the rules don’t apply to awesome people like us.

The left-brainer and the economist in me says watch what people do, not what they say.

If people are worried, if they’re fearful, if they feel a sense of grievance or that they’re not being treated properly or that they’re not being paid fairly, what you’re going to have is you’re going to have people doing the minimum amount of work necessary to not get fired, and not a peppercorn more.

The truth is, if we have our own reasons for doing something – reasons that we endorse – we’re more likely to do it; we’re more likely to stick with it.

Studying design has made me a much, much more astute observer of this aspect of business. And I’m working mightily to improve my empathic skills. I’ve dramatically improved my ability to read facial expressions – and I’m trying to be a better, more attentive listener.

The billable hours is a classic case of restricted autonomy. I mean, you’re working on – I mean, sometimes on these six-minute increments. So you’re not focused on doing a good job. You’re focused on hitting your numbers. It’s one reason why lawyers typically are so unhappy. And I want a world of happy lawyers.

Education in general, and higher education in particular, is on the brink of a huge disruption. Two big questions, which were once so well-settled that we ceased asking them, are now up for grabs. What should young people be learning? And what sorts of credentials indicate they’re ready for the workforce?

Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. These are the building blocks of an entirely new operating system for our businesses.

People don’t know how to listen, and it’s not their fault. In school, we learn how to read, we learn how to write – but nobody teaches you how to listen.

What’s important now are the characteristics of the brain’s right hemisphere: artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking. These skills have become first among equals in a whole range of business fields.

When I got to law school, I didn’t do very well. To put it mildly, I didn’t do very well. I, in fact, graduated in the part of my law school class that made the top 90% possible.

I’m not a Trump fan, to put it mildly, but I think there’s a power to simplicity. When Trump was running, people knew exactly what he stood for and what he was going to do as President.

Health care is a design problem. Dependence on foreign oil is a design problem. To some extent, poverty is a design problem. We need design thinkers to solve those problems, and most people who are in positions of political power are not design thinkers, to put it mildly.

You know, I’m not a huge fan of the concept of ‘passion’ when it comes to careers. Instead of trying to answer the daunting question of ‘What’s your passion?’ it’s better simply to watch what you do when you’ve got time of your own and nobody’s looking.

Management did not emanate from nature. Management is not a tree: it’s a television set. Somebody invented it. It doesn’t mean it’s going to work forever. Management is great. Traditional notions of management are great if you want compliance. But if you want engagement, self-direction works better.

Human beings are natural mimickers. The more you’re conscious of the other side‘s posture, mannerisms, and word choices – and the more you subtly reflect those back – the more accurate you’ll be at taking their perspective.

A lot of times when you have very short-term goals with a high payoff, nasty things can happen. In particular, a lot of people will take the low road there. They’ll become myopic. They’ll crowd out the longer-term interests of the organization or even of themselves.

Traditional performance reviews have passed their sell-by date. Big time. There’s research showing that roughly two-thirds of performance appraisals have either no effect – or a negative effect! – on employee performance.

All of us can expect to live longer than any organization that we would work for. That continues apace. Human longevity is increasing; corporate longevity is decreasing.

I happen to be extremely left-brained; my instinct is to draw a chart rather than a picture. I’m trying to get my right-brain muscles into shape. I actually think this shift toward right-brain abilities has the potential to make us both better off and better in a deeper sense.

Clinton was super attuned to other people to the point where he talks about feeling other people’s pain. Clinton is probably the most buoyant, resilient person in American political history.

In many professions, what used to matter most were abilities associated with the left side of the brain: linear, sequential, spreadsheet kind of faculties. Those still matter, but they’re not enough.

If you create something, whether it’s a painting or a company, I think if you care about it, you have some obligation to go out and tell people about it.

My generation‘s parents told their children, ‘Become an accountant, a lawyer, or an engineer; that will give you a solid foothold in the middle class.’ But these jobs are now being sent overseas. So in order to make it today, you have to do work that’s hard to outsource, hard to automate.

I think there are moral obligations, and I think there are economic transactions. So I think that chores are good; I think that allowances are good. I think combining them is bad.

Now it’s easy for someone to set up a storefront and reach the entire world in very modest ways. So these technologies that we thought would dis-intermediate traditional sellers gave more people the tools to be sellers. It also changed the balance of power between sellers and buyers.

One of the best predictors of ultimate success in either sales or non-sales selling isn’t natural talent or even industry expertise, but how you explain your failures and rejections.

I don’t think it’s a Western thing to really talk about intrinsic motivation and the drive for autonomy, mastery and purpose. You have to not be struggling for survival. For people who don’t know where their next meal is coming, notions of finding inner motivation are comical.

There’s an idea out there that salespeople have actually been obliterated by the Internet, which is just not supported by the facts.

Selling is helping people to do what they’re already inclined to do.

There is a huge body of evidence showing that people do better in their work when they know why they’re doing it in the first place. They do better when they see what they’re doing contributes to something in the world.

Large companies are not going to disappear. Multinational companies with tens of thousands of employees are not going to disappear. In fact, many of them are getting larger because they can benefit from economies of scale.

Too often, when you are close to people in power, you’re trying to make them happy; you’re trying to tell them what they want to hear. But I find that really good leaders don’t want that. They want the truth. And you do them a service, and yourself a service, by just being honest and straightforward.

It seems the best approach for any venture is a combo platter – Japan‘s quality-consciousness paired with America’s willingness to experiment and (sometimes) fail.

In large organizations there are discrete functions. I do this; you do that. I swim in my lane; you swim in your lane. That can be very effective for certain processes and in certain stable conditions. But it doesn’t work in unstable conditions.

I think that designers and architects need to educate the people who don’t quite know what they do and make a strong case for why it’s valuable and why it changes the game. I think waiting for people to come around to it just won‘t do.

I think the more important task for a young person than developing a personal brand is figuring out what she‘s great at, what she loves to do, and how she can use that to leave an imprint in the world. Those are tough questions, but essential ones. Answer those – and the personal brand follows.