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 Expert
To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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 Expert
Incidents should not govern policy; but, policy incidents.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
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 leader follows in front.
—Common Proverb
One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
—Chinese Proverb
Management is the art of getting three men to do three men’s work.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Who can direct when all pretend to know?
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
If way to the better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
In the words of Max DePree: “Management has a lot to do with answers. But leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
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
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
Not to watch your workmen is to lose your money.
—Spanish Proverb
Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folklore and superstition, and of cooperation for force…
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
If you are the master be sometimes blind, if you are the servant be sometimes deaf.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
The smaller the function, the greater the management.
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–93) British Historian, Author
Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.
—Donald Rumsfeld (1932–2021) U.S. Secretary of Defense
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
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
There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
When a management team 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
A man is known by the company he organizes.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
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
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
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
The one word that makes a good manager—decisiveness.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Note to salary setters: Pay your people the least possible and you’ll get from them the same.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
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
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
Leave a Reply