Management Insights

Management Quotes: Management Leadership

• You can't imagine the extra work I had when I was a god. Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
• We must become the change we want to see.- Mahatma Gandhi  
• Good leadership requires a balanced mix of paradoxes. Leaders need to be visionary yet practical, teachers yet learners, believers yet open-minded, assertive yet tolerant. Med Jones
• 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 I have seen farther than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.
  - Sir Isaac Newton
• I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers - Ralph Nader , president green party & US presidential candidate
• Ah well! I am their leader, I really ought to follow them! - Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

• There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending - Liu Shao-ch'i  

• Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. - From an old African proverb 
• When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.  - Lao Tse
• The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything. - Theodore Roosevelt
• Many people find it reassuring to think that someone else has the answer;
  others believe they have it and take control; CEO's frequently benefit
  from the realization that there is not one answer. -Unknown
• I will venture to lay it down for an infallible rule, that, if two persons equal in judgment play for a considerable sum, he that loves money the most shall lose; his anxiety for the success of the game confounds him. - Benjamin Franklin 
• Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. - Warren Bennis
• If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission. - Admiral Grace Hopper
• You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.   - Eleanor Roosevelt
• Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table. - Hubert H. Humphrey
• 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 Galbraith,. economist 
• The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way.- Henry Miller
• Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint. - Lewis H. Lapham
• I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum. - Bishop Desmond Tutu
• People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader leads, and the boss drives. - Theodore Roosevelt
• The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. . . . The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. - Walter Lippmann
• If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. - Katharine Hepburn
• In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions. - Margaret Wheatly
• The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization. - Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers
• Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps. - David Loyd George
• There is no contest between the company that buys the grudging compliance of its workforce and the company that enjoys the enterprising participation of its employees. - Ricardo Sempler 
• Excellence is not an accomplishment. It is a spirit, a never-ending process. - Lawrence M. Miller
• The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.- Max DePree 
• When what you are doing isn't working, you tend to do more of the same and with greater intensity. - Dr. Bill Maynard & Tom Champoux Heart
• A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: "Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain." - Max DePree
• A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless ... someone's got to make a wake up call. - Warren Bennis
• I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. - Warren Bennis
•  When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.- Lao Tse 
• Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity - George Patton
• Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans. - Peter Drucker
• Hell, there are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something.- Thomas A. Edison
• Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure. - Admiral Arleigh A. Burke
• Where there is no vision, the people perish.- Proverbs 
• Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Theresa
• You can exert no influence if you are not susceptible to influence. --C. G. Jung
• 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 nay-sayers. 13.Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
• Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. -  Abraham Lincoln
• It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone. . . . The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment. - W. Edwards Deming
• The very essence of leadership is its purpose. And the purpose of leadership is to accomplish a task. That is what leadership does--and what it does is more important than what it is or how it works.- Colonel Dandridge M. Malone
• Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.- Muriel Strode
• If you want to get to the top, you must have enough energy to go up against forces of gravity, Med Jones
• The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. -Eric Hoffer
• In war, three quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter. - Napoleon
• Give us the tools, and we will finish the job. - Winston Churchill
• Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. - James Baldwin
• I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Ralph Nader US lawyer, consumer advocate

• A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done. Dwight D. Eisenhower, US president
• Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden. Isaac Watts English minister
• An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success. Stephen R. Covey author 
• Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.- Martin Luther King, Jr. US civil rights leader
• Effective managers live in the present -- but concentrate on the future. James L. Hayes 
• Example is leadership. - Albert Schweitzer  theologian, musician, medical missionary
• I refuse to make a decision that somebody else can make. The first rule of leadership is to save yourself for the big decision. Don't allow your mind to become cluttered. Richard Nixon US president
• I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. - Indira Gandhi , Indian political leader 
• I try to keep in touch with the details . . . I also look at the product daily. That doesn't mean you interfere, but it's important occasionally to show the ability to be involved. It shows you understand what's happening. Rupert Murdoch US publisher 
• In motivating people, you've got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope, by example -- and perhaps by excitement, by having productive ideas to make others feel involved. Rupert Murdoch 
• Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it. Henry Mintzberg, US singer
• Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. Tom Peters , author
• Many people equate good management with perfection. This is a fallacy. If perfection could be achieved, there would be no need for management. James L. Hayes
• Money does motivate but only for a short time and only as long as it serves as a measure of worth or of power or of victory. James L. Hayes 
• No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude. Rupert Murdoch ,  publisher
• Take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own, Mao Tse-Tung
• The art of leadership. . . consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention. . . . Adolf Hitler
• It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. Martin Luther King, Jr. US civil rights leader
• The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity. Mahatma Gandhi
• Entertain great hopes. --Robert Frost
• For myself, I am an optimist--it does not seem to be much use being anything else. --Winston Churchill
• God be praised, that to believing souls Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair. --William Shakespeare
• He who does not hope to win has already lost. --Jose Joaquin Olmedo
• He who has health, has hope. And he who has hope, has everything. --Arabian Proverb
• Beware how you take away hope from another human being. --Oliver Wendell Holmes
• The reason for idleness and crime is the deferring of our hopes. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up. --Anne Lamott 
• Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who hopes strongly, has within him the gift of miracles. --Samuel Smiles
• Hope is a gift we give ourselves, and it remains when all else is gone. --Naomi Judd
• Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for .success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good. --Vaclav Havel
• Hope is always available to us. When we feel defeated, we need only take a deep breath and say, "Yes," and hope will reappear. --Monroe Forester - "Body, Mind and Spirit"
• Hope is a thing with feathers, that perches in the soul. --Emily Dickinson
• Hope is a waking dream. --Aristotle
• Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable. --Samuel Johnson
• Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords. --Samuel Johnson
• Hopes are but the dreams of those that wake. --Matthew Prior
• Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. --Unknown
• If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. --Henry Ford
• If you have a lemon, make lemonade. --Howard Gossage
• In all pleasure hope is a considerable part. --Samuel Johnson
• It's unfulfilled dreams that keep you alive. --Robert Schuller
• Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. --Unknown
• Morale is a state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. --General George Marshall
• Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. --Dale Carnegie
• Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory. --Norman Vincent Peale
• Prosperity is not without many fears and disasters; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. --Francis Bacon
• Such is hope, heaven's own gift to struggling mortals, pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies, all things both good and bad. --Charles Dickens
• The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. --Eleanor Roosevelt
• To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine man. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
• True hope dwells on the possible, even when life seems to be a plot written by someone who wants to see how much adversity we can overcome. --Walter Anderson 
• We judge of man's wisdom by his hope. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
• We live by admiration, hope and love. --William Wordsworth
• Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit. --Norman Vincent Peale

• People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives. - Theodore Roosevelt
• The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. . . . The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. - Walter Lippmann
• There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant. - Liu Shao-ch'i
• There's no such thing as a race and barely such a thing as an ethnic group. If we were dogs, we'd be the same breed. . . . Trouble doesn't come from Slopes, Kikes, Niggers, Spics or White Capitalist Pigs; it comes from the heart. - P. J. O'Rourke  journalist
• If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. - Katharine Hepburn
• If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. - John F. Kennedy  U.S. Democratic politician, president.
• In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions. - Margaret Wheatly
•  Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters. - Albert Einstein
• Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. - Karen Kaiser Clark
• The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization. - Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers Improving Leadership Effectiveness
• Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps. - David Loyd George
• There is no contest between the company that buys the grudging compliance of its work force and the company that enjoys the enterprising participation of its employees. - Ricardo Sempler 
• Excellence is not an accomplishment. It is a spirit, a never-ending process. - Lawrence M. Miller
• You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. - Colette
• The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.- Max DePree  
• When what you are doing isn't working, you tend to do more of the same and with greater intensity. - Dr. Bill Maynard & Tom Champoux Heart
• Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.- Peter Drucker  
• A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: "Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain." - Max DePree
• Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.- Winston Churchill
• A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless ... someone's got to make a wake up call. - Warren Bennis
• I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. - Warren Bennis
•  When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.- Lao Tse 
• Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity - George Patton
• Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans. - Peter Drucker
• Hell, there are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something.- Thomas A. Edison
• Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true. - Lester R. Bittel The Nine Master Keys of Management  
• Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them.- Adlai Stevenson
• Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure. - Admiral Arleigh A. Burke
• Where there is no vision, the people perish.- Proverbs 
• Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Theresa

• The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. - Albert Einstein
•  The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on. - Walter J. Lippmann
• Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. - Marian Anderson
• You may have afresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford
• People are more easily led than driven. - David Harold Fink
• Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together. - Jesse Jackson
• What is character but the determination of incident , what is incident but the illustration of character? - Henery James
• The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. - Erica Jong
• No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it. - Andrew Carnegie
• The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.- Max DePree The Art of Leadership
• Processes don't do work, people do.- John Seely Brown
• Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. -Harold Geneen
• The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.- Henry Kissinger
• The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.- - Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonald's
• Jingshen is the Mandarin word for spirit and vivacity. It is an important word for those who would lead, because above all things, spirit and vivacity set effective organizations apart from those that will decline and die.- James L. Hayes  Leadership
• Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process. - Harold Geneen
• Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. -  Thomas Alva Edison 
• You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment. -Alvin Toffler
• Remember that it is far better to follow well than to lead indifferently.- John G. Vance 
• The only real training for leadership is leadership. - Anthony Jay
• Quality has to be caused, not controlled. - Philip Crosby Reflections on Quality
• Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answer. - Phil Dixon 
• Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it you can make it so. - Belva Davis 
• The future is taking shape now in our own beliefs and in the courage of our leaders. Ideas and leadership -- not natural or social 'forces' -- are the prime movers in human affairs. - George Roche
• The art of leading, in operations large or small, is the art of dealing with humanity, of working diligently on behalf of men, of being sympathetic with them, but equally, of insisting that they make a square facing toward their own problems. - S. L. A. Marshall
•  And when we think we lead, we are most led. -Lord Byron
• Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.- Dee W. Hock
• ... As we, the leaders, deal with tomorrow, our task is not to try to make perfect plans. ...Our task is to create organizations that are sufficiently flexible and versatile that they can take our imperfect plans and make them work in execution. That is the essential character of the learning organization. - Gordon R. Sullivan & Michael V. Harper
• In matters of style, swim with the current; In matters of principle, stand like a rock. - T. Jefferson
• If you think you can do a thing or that you cannot do a thing, in either case you are right. - Henry Ford
• When nothing is sure, everything is possible.- Margaret Drabble
• Think of managing change as an adventure. It tests your skills and abilities. It brings forth talent that may have been dormant. Change is also a training ground for leadership. When we think of leaders, we remember times of change, innovation and conflict. Leadership is often about shaping a new way of life. To do that, you must advance change, take risks and accept responsibility for making change happen.   - Charles E. Rice, CEO of Barnett Bank

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