62 Inspiring Management And Leadership Quotes

In the ever-evolving landscape of business, where challenges and opportunities abound, the role of effective management and leadership has never been more crucial. Whether you're leading a corporation, a small team, or your own entrepreneurial venture, the principles of leadership and management form the backbone of success. Words have the power to inspire, motivate, and guide us through complex situations. With this in mind, we've curated a collection of 62 insightful quotes from renowned leaders and thinkers. These quotes serve as a beacon for anyone seeking to enhance their leadership skills and inspire those around them. Let these words of wisdom fuel your journey towards becoming an impactful and inspiring leader.

1. “A manager’s emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual & physical commitment combined.” - Stan Slap

2. “Emotional commitment means unchecked, unvarnished devotion to the company and its success; any legendary organizational performance is the result of emotionally committed managers.” - Stan Slap

3. “What companies want most from their managers is what they most stop their managers from giving. What managers want most from their jobs is what they most stop themselves from getting.” - Stan Slap

4. “Providing the ultimate solution to work/life balance: not escaping from work but living the way you want to at work.” - Stan Slap

5. “Profitability. Growth. Quality. Exceeding customer expectations. These are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.” - Stan Slap

6. “Try not to take this the wrong way, but your brain is smarter than you are.” - Stan Slap

7. “Your dreams and the dreams of your company may be different, but they are in no way incompatible.” - Stan Slap

8. “The worst thing in your own development as a leader is not to do it wrong. It’s to do it for the wrong reasons.” - Stan Slap

9. “The purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully.” - Stan Slap

10. “Human behavior is only unpredictable and dangerous if you don’t start from humanity in the first place.” - Stan Slap

11. “Your company really has to work for you before you’ll really work for your company.” - Stan Slap

12. “When rewards come from an external source instead of an internal source, they’re unreliable, which means they’re dangerous if you grow to depend on them.” - Stan Slap

13. “What first separates a leader from a normal human being? A leader knows who they are as a human being.” - Stan Slap

14. “The myth of management is that your personal values are irrelevant or inappropriate at work.” - Stan Slap

15. “When you’re a manager, you work for your company. When you’re a leader, your company works for you.” - Stan Slap

16. “Here’s what you need to know most about leadership: Lead your own life first. The only thing in this world that will dependably happen from the top down is the digging of your grave.” - Stan Slap

17. “Instead of waiting for a leader you can believe in, try this: Become a leader you can believe in.” - Stan Slap

18. “You can stuff yourself with emotional fulfillment until it’s dribbling down your chin & your ego will quickly chomp it down and demand more.” - Stan Slap

19. “The economy is in ruins! Bottom line? Good management will defeat a bad economy.” - Stan Slap

20. “You can’t sell it outside if you can’t sell it inside.” - Stan Slap

21. “Your company is its own competition and can deliver itself debilitating blows the competition only dreams of.” - Stan Slap

22. “The first step to solving any problem is to accept one’s own accountability for creating it.” - Stan Slap

23. “Being relevant to your customers only when you’re trying to sell something means choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time.” - Stan Slap

24. “You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human. You want it. People don't trust companies; they trust people.” - Stan Slap

25. “There will be plenty of other problems in the future. This is as good a time as any to get ahead of them.” - Stan Slap

26. “The smart strategist allows strategy to be shaped by events. Good reactions can make great strategy. Strategy involves competition of goals, and the risk is the difference between those goals and the ability of the organization to achieve them. So part of the risk is created by the strategy.” - Max Mckeown

27. “So this is (a manager's) dilemma: The manager must retain control and focus people on performance. But she is bound by her belief that she cannot force everyone to perform the same way. ... The solution is as elegant as it is efficient: Define the right outcomes and let each person find his own route toward these outcomes.” - Marcus Buckingham

28. “The Swedes have coined the term 'management by perkele' to portray the Finnish managerial approach. Instead of collectively pondering all the possible alternatives and letting every member of the staff from the cleaner to the MD voice their views, as the Swedes do, the Finns act swiftly and don't waste time on the decision-making process. If something isn't happening quickly enough, it is necessary for the top managers to slam their fists on the table and yell, 'Perkele!' Repeatedly, if necessary.” - Tarja Moles

29. “To master the virtual equation and make all the elements work together, you have to become the connector. In fact, your greatest role as a virtual manager is to link the various parts of his/her team to accomplish the goals that lead to its formation in the first place. You may need to shift gears, perform ream tune-ups, realign, and refuel your team's energy along the way.” - Yael Zofi

30. “The only consequence of their (employee) silence is that the blind (employer) lead the blind.” - Margaret Heffernan

31. “The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up. What do you really want from your company?” - Stan Slap

32. “Success means: I want to know the work I do means something to somebody and helps make the world, if not a Better place, not a worse one.” - Stan Slap

33. “Success for Managers means: I want to be in healthy relationships. I want a real connection with people I spend so much time with.” - Stan Slap

34. “Let’s get right on top of the bottom line: You must live your personal values at work.” - Stan Slap

35. “Hard-core results come from igniting the massive power of emotional commitment. Are your people committed?” - Stan Slap

36. “Do you think your people struggle with being true to themselves? Do their values match up with their work?” - Stan Slap

37. “The heart of a company’s performance is hardwired to the hearts of its managers.” - Stan Slap

38. “Your values are your essence: an undistorted mirror showing you at your pure, attractive best.” - Stan Slap

39. “The high quality of a company’s customer experience rarely has anything to do with the high price of their product.” - Stan Slap

40. “Careful now: even a financially rewarding, intellectually stimulating work environment isn’t the same as living your own values.” - Stan Slap

41. “To integrate one’s experiences around a coherent and enduring sense of self lies at the core of creating a user’s guide to life.” - Stan Slap

42. “Management controls performance in people because it impacts skills; it’s a matter of monitoring, analyzing and directing.” - Stan Slap

43. “Leadership creates performance in people because it impacts willingness; it’s a matter of modeling, inspiring, and reinforcing.” - Stan Slap

44. “Leaders are people who know exactly who they are. They know exactly where they want to go. They’re hell-bent on getting there.” - Stan Slap

45. “Leaders make a lot of mistakes but they admit those mistakes to themselves and change because of them.” - Stan Slap

46. “Managers know what they want most: to be allowed to achieve success by leveraging who they are, not by compromising it.” - Stan Slap

47. “Any expert will tell you that if you want emotionally committed relationships then people must be allowed to be true to who they are.” - Stan Slap

48. “Companies should be the best possible place to practice fulfillment, to live out values and to realize deep connectivity and purpose.” - Stan Slap

49. “Values are the individual biases that allow you to decide which actions are true for you alone.” - Stan Slap

50. “When you’re not on your own agenda, you’re prey to the agenda of others.” - Stan Slap

51. “When you don’t know what true for you, everyone else has unusual influence.” - Stan Slap

52. “True leaders live their values everywhere, not just in the workplace.” - Stan Slap

53. “Most managers have plenty of emotional commitment to give to their jobs. If they can be convinced it’s safe and sensible to give it.” - Stan Slap

54. “Emotional commitment is a personal choice. Managers understand this even if their companies don’t.” - Stan Slap

55. “A manager’s emotional commitment is worth more than their financial, intellectual and physical commitment combined.” - Stan Slap

56. “Why live my personal values at work? This is an excellent question to ask. If your attorneys are planning an insanity defense.” - Stan Slap

57. “What managers want most from companies they stop themselves from getting.What companies want most from managers they stop them from giving.” - Stan Slap

58. “It’s impossible for a company to get what it wants most if managers have to make a choice between their own values and company priorities.” - Stan Slap

59. “I say, 'Get me some poets as managers.' Poets are our original systems thinkers. They contemplate the world in which we live and feel obligated to interpret, and give expression to it in a way that makes the reader understand how that world runs. Poets, those unheralded systems thinkers, are our true digital thinkers. It is from their midst that I believe we will draw tomorrow's new business leaders."--Sidney Harman, CEO Multimillionaire of a stereo components company” - Daniel H. Pink

60. “Managers’ responsibility is to ensure that people deliver the expected results, which are the company’s strategy. The company’s strategy, in turn, determines its competitive advantage. So, if a manager does a poor job of motivating employees’ productivity, the enterprise is a weak competitor. ” - Anna Stevens

61. “For a business to strengthen its position on the market, its managers should become skillful at helping their subordinates to set and achieve specific and measurable goals with realistic deadlines and clear expectations. Managers should also mentor employees through challenges, helping them grow and develop new skills.” - Anna Stevens

62. “I'm OK with firing people when they fuck up, but canning them when they've done nothing wrong - that's painful. [on the layoffs needed after 9/11 hit the business]” - Marcus Samuelsson