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Van Cleef’s Laws
As a leader in the Navy and later as a manager in the corporate world, these were the rules that I developed for doing more than just surviving.
Van Cleef’s First Law
1. Never underestimate the power of a draft memo.
How often have you attempted to get management’s attention, but your recommendations fall on deaf ears? While working for NASA I discovered the secret to getting attention and cooperation.
Post a draft memo for “review” by your team and management. Those memos will take on a life of their own. People will remember reading them, but forget the fact that no one, other than you, signed them.
Van Cleef’s Second Law
2. If you want to get anything done, don’t get a life.
Van Cleef’s Third Law
3. A CPU’s initialization time is inversely proportional to it’s speed.
I worked on one too many supercomputer … leading to:
Van Cleef’s Fourth Law
4. To err is human. To really foul up requires a computer.
Van Cleef’s Two Guidelines for Getting Along at Work
- Never lie to the boss.
- Never let the boss be surprised.
Part one is obvious. Throughout my career, I found that getting to be known as a “speaker of truth” was one of your most important…
