"Hire folks, listen to them and get out of their way" is vague and vagueness is a lightning rod just waiting to be struck by someone who takes it a bit TOO lite

"Hire folks, listen to them and get out of their way" is vague and vagueness is a lightning rod just waiting to be struck by someone who takes it a bit TOO literally in some way. Obviously you can't get out of their way entirely, because you can't hire awesome people all of the time. You're going to have some average and mediocre people too. You need to know when to get out of the way, and when to impose rules and deadlines. None of this invalidates the original saying, any more than "shoot for the stars" is invalid because stars are balls of radioactive gas that will kill you if you literally fly into them.