Tough mindedness means frankness in criticism. Agreement makes us soft and complacent; disagreement brings out our strength. Our real enemies are the people who make us feel so good that we are slowly but inexplorably pulled down into the quicksand of smugness and self-satisfaction. It is particularly pertinent to business. Bosses down the line inmost companies typically have more authority over each other than managers in government do or than officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force do. In business, authority is usually more complete. There is likely to be no court of review. All this creates a high need of frank criticism- of bosses by their subordinates as well as of suboridinates by their bosses. Criticism down, if done in the right way, will set the stage for subordinates to come right back at their seniors with frank questions.

Congeniality and respect are factors here. When a boss prods, criticizes, or “bawls out” a man, the effect depend on what has gone on between them before. If the two men are stiff and formal with each other, the junior man will probably resent the criticism and ignore the suggestions. But if the two are congenial, it is quite a different matter; the junior is less likely to take the exchange personally, and more likely to get interested in the substance of the conversation.

Time and again, experience suggests that employees failure can be traced to lack of helpful criticism from their bosses. The seniors missed opportunities to comment on things like an unclear letter, an act of rudeness, excess caution, lack of knowledge about people, or failure to delegate authority. When very many opportunities of this sort are missed, the boss’s competence to manage should be questioned. Such failures have resulted in no’s to recommended salary increases.
Go ahead and run Risks- Being tough minded means that you’re willing to make decisions in the face of uncertainties- to go ahead with what seems the best thing to do and take the risk of being wrong, rather than trying to make absolutely sure and delaying a decision until it is too late. An especially important temptation to avoid is that of reopening decisions. On occasions to be sure, decisions should be reconsidered, but if you reconsider them as often as various people would like you to, you are in real danger.More important than ways or means is the objective-to get results and keep moving.