Management Quotes

“I don't care if you're black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich or poor. If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Simple as that.”
― Robert Michaels MD - 2007 - Graduation Speaker

“Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.”
― Bernard Branson

“Start with the end in mind. ”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

“In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.”
― John C Maxwell

“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."

[From the Preface]”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“Most of the upper management of I.S. were undead. I always thought it was because the job was easier if you didn't have a soul.”
― Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking

“What's measured improves”
― Peter Drucker

“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”
― Robert Conquest

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”
― Peter Drucker

“People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
― Peter F. Drucker

“You can change only what people know, not what they do.”
― Scott Adams, God's Debris: A Thought Experiment

“Employers are like horses — they require management.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Carry On, Jeeves

“If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.”
― Brad Szollose

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
― Peter F. Drucker

“People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.”
― Peter Drucker

“The job facing production managers focuses on how to help their team maintain hope while also addressing the sometimes brutal or dismal facts of their situation. If the truth of their position remains unseen, they will never grow the skills necessary to resolve it.”
― Raymond Wheeler, Lift: Five Practices Great Managers Do Consistently: Raise Performance and Morale - See Your Employees Thrive

“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

“The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.”
― Lorne Michaels

“Talent is the multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time.”
― Marcus Buckingham, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

“No matter how tiny you look, you can lead huge men if you have what the huge men don't have.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“All the managers I interviewed had the same sense of identity and self-assurance. None of them were arrogant. Instead, they were clear about who they were and what needed accomplishing. They used that sense of self to engage their team and learn each team member’s strengths and contributions. Their courage and confidence were infectious to their team and to anyone who crossed their paths.”
― Raymond Wheeler, Lift: Five Practices Great Managers Do Consistently: Raise Performance and Morale - See Your Employees Thrive

“When you give an assignment, don’t take it back!”
― Raymond Wheeler, Lift: Five Practices Great Managers Do Consistently: Raise Performance and Morale - See Your Employees Thrive

“One cannot measure a manager’s knowledge and performance in a vacuum. It involves their participation in business activities while bringing all of themselves to the process of development, including their spiritual, personal, and skill & ability development.”
― Raymond Wheeler, Lift: Five Practices Great Managers Do Consistently: Raise Performance and Morale - See Your Employees Thrive

“If climate drives business results, what drives climate? 50-70% of how employees perceive their organization’s climate corresponds to the actions of one person: their manager.”
― Raymond Wheeler, Lift: Five Practices Great Managers Do Consistently: Raise Performance and Morale - See Your Employees Thrive

“Lamb said, ‘If you had issues with him, I could have spoken to HR. Arranged an intervention.’ He tapped Moody’s shoulder with his foot. ‘Breaking his neck without going through your line manager, that shit stays on your record.”
― Mick Herron, Slow Horses

“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others”
― Peter Bevelin, All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There

“His management philosophy, tempered in his rain-dancing days, was always to give the project to whoever had the most to gain from success--or the most to lose from failure.”
― Michael Crichton, Congo

“Touch paper only once.”
― Robert Allen