Successful Project Management: PLAN, EXECUTE, EVALUATE Sounds simple, but most projects aren’t well planned nor are they evaluated well. The tendency is to jump right into execution and as soon as execution is completed (which usually isn’t soon), move on to the next project without evaluating what happen on the present project and what could have been improved. Successful project management requires more front and back end resources (and less middle) than are usually allocated.
—Unknown
Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Not to watch your workmen is to lose your money.
—Spanish Proverb
The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.—When people ask you to tell them what to do, resist.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
Things refuse to be mismanaged long.
—Common Proverb
An executive is someone who talks with visitors so the other employees can get their work done.
—Unknown
There is no class of men so difficult to be managed in a state as those whose intentions are honest, but whose consciences are bewitched.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.
—Grace Hopper (1906–92) American Naval Officer, Mathematician
As a manager the important thing is not what happens when you are there, but what happens when you are not there.
—Ken Blanchard (b.1939) American Author, Management Consultant
Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
The ability to manage well doesn’t make much difference if you’re not even in the right jungle.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
A manager is an assistant to his men.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relationships with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first line attention.
—William Hewlett (1913–2001) American Engineer, Inventor, Businessperson
A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
For a manager to be perceived as a positive manager, they need a four to one positive to negative contact ratio.
—Ken Blanchard (b.1939) American Author, Management Consultant
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself. Do that well and you’ll be ready to stop managing. And start leading.
—Unknown
Managing is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you kill it, not hard enough and it flies away.
—Tommy Lasorda (b.1927) American Baseball Player, Coach
I don’t know about you, but where I went to school, Money Management 101 wasn’t offered. Instead we learned about the War of 1812, which of course is something I use every single day.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Good managers have a bias for action.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author
The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Instead of forming new words I recommend to you any kind of artful management by which you may be able to give cost to old ones
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
A good manager is a man who isn’t worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. My advice: Don’t worry about yourself. Take care of those who work for you and you’ll float to greatness on their achievements.
—H. S. M. Burns (1900–71) American Businessman
Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren’t important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II…Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles, damn the men that run the shops, oh, damn their measured merriment.
—Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Just a few words on time management: forget all about it.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.
—Paul Hawken (b.1946) American Environmentalist
Most management-speak is, as Schrijvers points out, Panglossian balderdash designed to lull the weak and credulous
—Anonymous
A man is known by the company he organizes.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Make your top managers rich and they will make you rich.
—Robert S. Johnson (1920–98) American Military Leader
Some great men owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for their work.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The leader follows in front.
—Common Proverb
‘Teamwork’ is the word that bosses use when they actually mean ‘Do what I say.’
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
If each one does their duty as an individual and if each one works in their own proper vocation, it will be right with the whole.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
A good manager doesn’t try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you’re the boss and your people fight you openly when they think that you are wrong—that’s healthy.
—Robert C. Townsend (1920–98) American Businessman
Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
The one word that makes a good manager—decisiveness.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Top management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I’m still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.
—Robert C. Townsend (1920–98) American Businessman
The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds.
—Casey Stengel (1890–1975) American Sportsperson
Every time I appoint someone to a vacant position, I make a hundred unhappy and one ungrateful.
—Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) King of France
Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Management is the art of getting three men to do three men’s work.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author