Quotes on MANAGEMENT

"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their
wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don't have to
manage them."

— Jack Welch

"Make your top managers rich and they will make you rich."

— Robert H. Johnson

"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of
thine hand to do it."

— Proverbs 3:27

"Catch someone doing something right."

— Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."

— Paul Dickson

"Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and
don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out."

— Ronald Reagan
"Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as
means to your end."

— Immanuel Kant

"Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives.

Ninety percent of the time you haven't."

— Peter Drucker

"Don't equate activity with efficiency. You are paying your key people to see
the big picture. Don't let them get bogged down in a lot of meaningless
meetings and paper shuffling. Announce a Friday afternoon off once in a while.
Cancel a Monday morning meeting or two. Tell the cast of characters you'd like
them to spend the amount of time normally spent preparing for attending the
meeting at their desks, simply thinking about an original idea."

— Harvey Mackay

"Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone
to accomplish."

— Marcus Aurelius

"We cling to hierarchies because our place in a hierarchy is, rightly or

wrongly, a major indicator of our social worth."

— Harold J. Leavitt
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership
determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."

— Stephen R. Covey

"Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it . . . ;
Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the
routine."

— David Ogilvy

"When hiring key employees, there are only two qualities to look for:
judgement and taste. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard."

— John W. Gardner

"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys
who are undecided."

— Casey Stengel

"A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world."

— John Le Caré

"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, Natural Capitalism

"I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can
be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out
the great energies and talents of its people."

— Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

A Business and its Beliefs (1963)

"Focus on a few key objectives ... I only have three things to do. I have to
choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit
ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I'm really in the
business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas."

— Jack Welch

"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people
to work."

— Peter Drucker

"Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet."

— Henry Mintzberg
McGill University

"If you are the master be sometimes blind, if you are the servant be sometimes
deaf."

— R Buckminster Fuller
"The conventional definition of management is getting work done through
people, but real management is developing people through work."

— Agha Hasan Abedi

Quotes on ATTITUDE

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their
lives by altering their attitude of mind."

— William James
Psychologist

"The most positive men are the most credulous."

— Alexander Pope

"No one ever finds life worth living—he has to make it worth living."

— Unknown

"Pity is one of the noblest emotions available to human beings; self-pity is

possibly the most ignoble . . . . [It] is an incapacity, a crippling emotional
disease that severely distorts our perception of reality . . . a narcotic that
leaves its addicts wasted and derelict."

— Eugene H. Peterson
Author of Earth and Altar

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his
goal; noting on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

— W. W. Ziege
"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others
have thrown at him."

— David Brinkley
Television Journalist

"We can not tell what may happen to you in the strange medley of life. But we
can decide what happens to us—how we take it, what we do with it—and that
is what really counts in the end."

— Joseph F. Newton

"You can not always control circumstances, but you can control your own
thoughts."

— Charles Popplestown

"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound
ourselves."

— Thomas Edison

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious ... think about these things."

— Philippians 4:8
"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of
human freedoms —to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one's own way."

— Victor Frankl
Man's Search For Meaning

"If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every
experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and
happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be."

— John R. Miller

"Cultivate optimism by committing yourself to a cause, a plan or a value

system. You'll feel that you are growing in a meaningful direction which will
help you rise above day-to-day setbacks."

— Dr. Robert Conroy

in Bottom Line-Personal

"The winner's edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner's
edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success."

— Dennis Waitley

"Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive."

— George Washington
Rules of Civility
"If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. No one has the right to go
croaking about society, or what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief."

— Benjamin Disraeli

"What you think means more than anything else in your life. More than what
you earn, more than where you live, more than your social position, and more
than what anyone else may think about you."

— George Matthew Adams

Author

"[Sprezzatura ("unstudied nonchalance"):] Employ in everything a certain

casualness which conceals art and creates the impression that what is done
and said is accomplished without effort and without its being thought about. It
is from this, in my opinion, that grace largely derives."

— Baldassare Castiglione
The Book of the Courtier, 1528

"Change your thoughts and you change the world."

— Norman Vincent Peale

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right."

— Henry Ford

"Up is never where you are now."

 — Belasco & Stayer

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough
people to make it worth the effort."

— Herm Albright

General Colin Powell's Rules:

  1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.

  2. Get mad, then get over it.
  3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your
      position falls, your ego goes with it.
  4. It can be done!
  5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
  6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
  7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone
      else make yours.
  8. Check small things.
  9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
Quotes on COMMUNICATION

"Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective

leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit
a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can't get a message
across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't
even matter."

— Gilbert Amelio
President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp.

"Leaders who make it a practice to draw out the thoughts and ideas of their
subordinates and who are receptive even to bad news will be properly
informed. Communicate downward to subordinates with at least the same
care and attention as you communicate upward to superiors."

— L. B. Belker

"Frown on lapses of information. When people admit that they didn't keep you
informed, let them know that you don't want this kind of protection. A couple
of strong reactions by the manager, and a subordinate learns to make sure the
boss gets the word—all of it.

— Thomas L. Quick

"Regardless of the changes in technology, the market for well-crafted

messages will always have an audience."

— Steve Burnett
The Burnett Group
"Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our
era of hair trigger balances, when a false or misunderstood word may create
as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act."

— James Thurber

"Talkers have always ruled. They will continue to rule. The smart thing is to
join them."

— Bruce Barton
Congressman and Author

"The basic building block of good communications is the feeling that every
human being is unique and of value."

— Unknown

"If you have nothing to say, say nothing."

— Mark Twain

"The day soldiers stop bring you their problems is the day you have stopped
leading them."

— General Colin Powell

"Keep things informal. Talking is the natural way to do business. Writing is
great for keeping records and putting down details, but talk generates ideas.
Great things come from out luncheon meetings which consist of a sandwich, a
cup of soup, and a good idea or two. No martinis."

— T. Boone Pickens

You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't
get you anywhere.

— Lee Iacocca

" . . . ;a sense of humor can be a great help—particularly a sense of humor

about (oneself). William Howard Taft joked about his own corpulence and
people loved it; took nothing from his inherent dignity. Lincoln eased tense
moments with bawdy stories, and often poked fun at himself—and history
honors him for this human quality. A sense of humor is part of the art of
leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done."

— Dwight D.Eisenhower

"One learns peoples through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect."

— Mark Twain

"Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones."

— Benjamin Disraeli
"Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to
communicate unto you if your positions were reversed."

— Aaron Goldman

"The commander must be at constant pains to keep his troops abreast of all
the latest tactical experience and developments, and must insist on their
practical application. He must see to it that his subordinates are trained in
accordance with the latest requirements. The best form of welfare for the
troops is first-class training, for this saves unnecessary casualties."

— Field Marchall Erwin Rommel

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the
difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

— Mark Twain

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than
to open it and remove all doubt."

— Mark Twain

"The art of communication is the language of leadership."

— James Humes

"Preaching for life changes requires far less information and more
application. Less explanation and more inspiration."
 — Andy Stanley

"The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison,
drivel and misrepresentation."

— C. Northcote Parkinson

"The less people know, the more they yell."

— Seth Godin
Quotes on LEADERSHIP

"To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not
notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next,
the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is
done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!'"

— Lao-tsu

"If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall in the ditch."

— Jesus Christ

"Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the
tigers are getting hungry."

— Winston Churchill

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is

leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading
yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at
least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers."

— Dee Hock
Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the
willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in
their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."

— John Kenneth Galbraith

"If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he
would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him
that he had no authority whatever."

— G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott

"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they
have not been."

— Henry Kissinger

"No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to

manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a
leadership composed of average human beings."

— Peter Drucker

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it,
for the greatness is already there."

— John Buchan

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done
because he wants to do it."

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

"You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that's assault, not
leadership."
 — Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also
blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest."

— Hesiod
8th Century BC Greek poet

"Never give an order that can't be obeyed."

— General Douglas MacArthur

"Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing

and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted
commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of
leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them.
What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in
effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out
of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain
authority by giving it away."

— Admiral James B. Stockdale

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through
argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

— General Colin Powell

"I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how
heroic followership can be."
 — Warren Bennis

"Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no
leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful
leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."

— Harry Truman

"Leadership is intentional influence."

— Michael McKinney

"The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and
followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary
supports for leadership."

— Gary Wills
Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders

“"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern,
but impossible to enslave."

— Henry Peter Brougham, The Present State of Law, 1828

"A leader is one who influences a specific group of people to move in a God-
given direction."

— J. Robert Clinton
"All Leadership is influence."

— John C. Maxwell
Injoy, Inc.

"Now there are five matters to which a general must pay strict heed. The first
of these is administration; the second, preparedness; the third, determination;
the fourth, prudence; and the fifth, economy."

— Wu Ch'i (430-381 BC)

"You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know
how to follow, too."

— Sam Rayburn

"Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you
the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without
being humiliated."

— Dag Hammarskjöld

"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the
conviction and the will to carry on."

— Walter Lippmann
"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people
obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. But of a good leader, who
talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did this
ourselves.'"

— Lao-Tse

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and
the boss drives."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"Humans will probably always need the help of especially gifted moral leaders
in order to extend the bonds of caring and trust beyond the easy range of the
family and the face-to-face community. Such bonds have become essential to
the future of humanity."

—Paul R. Lawrence, Driven To Lead

"Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned."

— Harold Geneen

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank
you. In between, the leader is a servant."

— Max DePree
"Four rules of leadership in a free legislative body:
First, no matter how hard-fought the issue, never get personal. Don't say or do
anything that may come back to haunt you on another issue, another day....
Second, do your homework. You can't lead without knowing what you're
talking about....
Third, the American legislative process is one of give and take. Use your power
as a leader to persuade, not intimidate....
Fourth, be considerate of the needs of your colleagues, even if they're at the
bottom of the totem pole...."

— George Bush
Former President of the United States

"Speak Softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership

determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."

— Stephen R. Covey

"Authority should be seen as a part of leadership, not as a way around it."

— Michael McKinney

"He who has great power should use it lightly."

— Seneca
"How do you know you have won? When the energy is coming the other way
and when your people are visibly growing individually and as a group."

— Sir John Harvey-Jones

"He makes a great mistake ... who supposes that authority is firmer or better
established when it is founded by force than that which is welded by
affection."

— Terence

"The leader must know, must know that he knows, and must be able to make it
abundantly clear to those around him that he knows."

— Clarence Randall

"You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by
going to that place and making a case."

— Ken Kesey

"As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can
do a good impression of you when you're not around."

— Patrick Lencioni

"Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone's following you."

— Henry Gilmer
"Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue.
It is not "making friends and influencing people", that is flattery. Leadership is
lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance
to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal
limitations."

— Peter F. Drucker

"Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate

where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive
goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with
personal values."

— Mike Vance

"The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what
they do."

— Andrew Carnegie

"Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about

opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration—of oneself and of others.
Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not
a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and
considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine."

— Lance Secretan, Industry Week, October 12, 1998

"More than anything else today, followers believe they are part of a system, a
process that lacks heart. If there is one thing a leader can do to connect with
followers at a human, or better still a spiritual level, it is to become engaged
with them fully, to share experiences and emotions, and to set aside the
processes of leadership we have learned by rote."

— Lance Secretan, Industry Week, October 12, 1998

"There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple,
and useful life."

— Booker T. Washington

"He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of
his own."

"Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated."

— Fred Smith

"Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil
- the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the
constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be."

— William George Jordan

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

— Margaret Mead
"My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men
and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires
confidence."

— General Montgomery

"High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil,
tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer
safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic."

— George Orwell

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

— St. Francis of Assisi

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could
be."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift
to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when
we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now."

— Wangari Maathai
"I think leadership comes from integrity - that you do whatever you ask others
to do. I think there are non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good
example as a parent, a friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to
see better ways to do things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in
the air and trumpets blaring, activity."

— Scott Berkun

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you
become a leader, success is all about growing others."

— Jack Welch

"I think that the best training a top manager can be engaged in is management
by example. I want to make sure there is no discrepancy between what we say
and what we do. If you preach accountability and then promote somebody
with bad results, it doesn't work. I personally believe the best training is
management by example. Don't believe what I say. Believe what I do."

— Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind,

unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim,
that a "drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall."

— Abraham Lincoln
February 22, 1842 in Temperance Address
Quotes on RESPONSIBILITY
"Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . . In the
final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to
take on responsibility."

— Michael Korda
Editor-in-Cheif, Simon & Schuster

"The price of greatness is responsibility."

— Winston Churchill

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one
who dropped it."

— Lou Holtz

"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."

— General Colin Powell

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances,
the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself."

— Jim Rohn

"The reason people blame things on the previous generation is that there's
only one other choice."
 — Doug Larson

"In the old days, words like sin and Satan had a moral certitude. Today, they're
replaced with self-help jargon, words like dysfunction and antisocial behavior,
discouraging any responsibility for one's actions.."

— Don Henley
Singer/Songwriter

"Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of
making excuses."

— George Washington Carver

"All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another,
and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you."

— Wayne Dyer

"In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not
willingly be responsible through time and eternity."

— Abraham Lincoln
December 1, 1862 Message to Congress
"It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to
make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of
inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my
response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a
person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make
them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what
they are capable of becoming.”

— J. W. Goethe

"I strongly believe that the responsibility of leadership is to shape the debate
—to practice and project the right attributes—whether in a business
enterprise, in our society, and even in our religions."

— Farooq Kathwari, CEO Ethan Allen

"Leader in its most important sense means being the agent of your own life,
influencing the things you care about most in the world to make it a richer life.
"

— Stewart Friedman, Total Leadership