70 Management Quotes For Leaders

In the fast-paced world of business, effective leadership is crucial for success. Whether you're a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, the wisdom encapsulated in powerful quotes can offer invaluable insights and inspiration. This collection of the top 70 management quotes for leaders is carefully curated to provide guidance, motivate, and empower you as you navigate the complexities of leadership. Each quote, drawn from a diverse range of thought leaders, offers a unique perspective on managing teams, fostering innovation, and cultivating a thriving organizational culture. Dive in and discover pearls of wisdom that can help elevate your leadership journey.

1. “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

2. “Management, a science? Of course not, it's just a waste-paper basket full of recipes which provided the dish of the day during a few years of plenty and economic growth. Now the recipes are inappropriate and the companies which persist in following them will disappear.” - Leon Courville

3. “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

4. “In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting.” - Marcus Buckingham

5. “Employers are like horses — they require management.” - P.G. Wodehouse

6. “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

7. “Management is, above all, a practice where art, science, and craft meet” - Henry Mintzberg

8. “Learning is about seeing things froma a different perspective. My role is to help people improve their vision” - Bob Selden

9. “Managers receiving hundreds of thousands a year—and setting their compensation for themselves—are not being paid wages, they are appropriating surplus value in the guise of wages. ” - Michael Harrington

10. “When the management iceberg is shaped like a huge phallus, you know that there are a lot of tossers that the top penguin has had to climb over to reach the tip and that there is no shortage of the same caliber of penguin in the balls and shaft of the corporation, just waiting for their chance to get a spurt to the top. Should I sugar coat this a little more? or tell it like it is?” - Daniel Prokop

11. “That's why I bake. To fill fairies with goodness."And it was true, she realized. She didn't run the kitchen just to boss other fairies around. She didn't give orders just to make herself feel important. Well, at least she wouldn't anymore. No. The day before, she hadn't missed that part of her job at all. She had missed the baking. She had missed creating something for others to enjoy.And, oh, how she wanted to go back to work!” - Gail Herman

12. “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

13. “Accountants are in the past, managers are in the present, and leaders are in the future.” - Paul Orfalea

14. “No great manager or leader ever fell from heaven, its learned not inherited.” - Tom Northup

15. “All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting. If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.” - Tom Northup

16. “Little by little the agents have taken over the world. They don't do anything, they don't make anything, they just stand and take their cut.” - Mœbius

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

18. “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

19. “A baseball manager recognizes a nonphysical talent, hustle, as an essential gift of great players and great teams. It is the characteristic of running faster than necessary, moving sooner than necessary, trying harder than necessary. It is essential for great programming teams, too.” - Frederick P. Brooks

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

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

22. “As I have earlier noted, the most important things in life and in business can’t be measured. The trite bromide 'If you can measure it, you can manage it' has been a hindrance in the building a great real-world organization, just as it has been a hindrance in evaluating the real-world economy. It is character, not numbers, that make the world go ‘round. How can we possibly measure the qualities of human existence that give our lives and careers meaning? How about grace, kindness, and integrity? What value do we put on passion, devotion, and trust? How much do cheerfulness, the lilt of a human voice, and a touch of pride add to our lives? Tell me, please, if you can, how to value friendship, cooperation, dedication, and spirit. Categorically, the firm that ignores the intangible qualities that the human beings who are our colleagues bring to their careers will never build a great workforce or a great organization.” - John C. Bogle

23. “You can change only what people know, not what they do.” - Scott Adams

24. “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

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

26. “Anger can be managed to becomeemotional content that raises power.” - Toba Beta

27. “Leash the anger on purpose.Unleash it when falling apart.” - Toba Beta

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

29. “Instead of freaking out about these constraints, embrace them. Let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage.” - 37signals

30. “Management cares about only one thing. Paperwork. They will forgive almost anything else - cost overruns, gross incompetence, criminal indictments - as long as the paperwork's filled out properly. And in on time.” - Connie Willis

31. “If humans can live for 100 years, why do companies die so young.” - Sukant Ratnakar

32. “It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable. It’s the people you don’t.” - Dick Grote

33. “Remember the Golden Rule? "Treat people as you would like to be treated." The best managers break the Golden Rule every day. They would say don't treat people as you would like to be treated. This presupposes that everyone breathes the same psychological oxygen as you. For example, if you are competitive, everyone must be similarly competitive. If you like to be praised in public, everyone else must, too. Everyone must share your hatred of micromanagement.” - Marcus Buckingham

34. “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

35. “Unfortunately it's also true to say that good management is a bit like oxygen - it's invisible and you don't notice its presence until it's gone, and then you're sorry.” - Charles Stross

36. “When you manage people, you must first convince them they need managing. So you create the problems and then let the people cry for solutions.” - Barbara Marciniak

37. “Touch paper only once.” - Robert Allen

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

39. “Versuche dein Bestes - und scheitere. Das ist die Realität.” - Dalai Lama XIV

40. “...not doing what we love in the name of greed is very poor management of our lives.” - Warren Buffet

41. “You can actually recreate your world with the Word of the Creator in your mouth.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

42. “Existuje jistý druh vedoucích, kteří jsou známí svým "Moje dveře jsou vždycky otevřené" a bylo by pravděpodobně lepší utlouci se vlastním životopisem než pro ně pracovat.” - Terry Pratchett

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

44. “The Four Keys of Great Managers:1. "When selecting someone, they select for talent ... not simply experience, intelligence or determination."2. "When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes ... not the right steps."3. "When motivating someone, they focus on strengths ... not on weaknesses."4. "When developing someone, they help him find the right fit ... not simply the next rung on the ladder.” - Marcus Buckingham

45. “...every time you make a rule you take away a choice and choice, with all of its illuminating repercussions, is the fuel for learning.” - Marcus Buckingham

46. “Anything plus management amounts to success” - G.S. Alag

47. “Constant endeavour plus management amounts to success” - G.S. Alag

48. “Strategy is about shaping the future.” - Max Mckeown

49. “Corporate strategy is usually only useful if you get people engaged with helping you to make it work.” - Max Mckeown

50. “Strategy is not really a solo sport – even if you’re the CEO.” - Max Mckeown

51. “Wait. You work for me?""I prefer to think of it as managing your incompetence.” - Jim Butcher

52. “PALATABLE CRITICISM: In a performance review, don't offer more than three criticisms. That's all an employee can digest.” - Nancy Humphries

53. “Forcing your employees to follow required steps only prevents customer dissatisfaction. If your goal is truly to satisfy, to create advocates, then the step-by-step approach alone cannot get you there. Instead, you must select employees who have the talent to listen and to teach, and then you must focus them toward simple emotional outcomes like partnership and advice....Identify a person's strenths. Define outcomes that play to those strengths. Find a way to count, rate or rank those outcomes. And then let the person run.” - Marcus Buckingham

54. “To be sure, the fundamental task of management remains the same: to make people capable of joint performance through common goals, common values, the right structure, and the training and development they need to perform and to respond to change.” - Peter F. Drucker

55. “The moment you start building or doing stuff beyond your knowledge, soon you will end up by demanding time.” - Ajeet Pratap Maurya

56. “Define excellence vividly, quantitatively. Paint a picture for your most talented employees of what excellence looks like. Keep everyone pushing and pushing toward the right-hand edge of the bell curve.” - Marcus Buckingham

57. “A great strategy meeting is a meeting of minds.” - Max Mckeown

58. “There has to be a way to redirect employee's driving ambition and to channel it more productively. There is. Create heroes in every role. Make every role, performed at excellence, a respected profession.” - Marcus Buckingham First Break All the Rules

59. “Managers are encouraged to focus on complex initiatives like reengineering or learning organizations, without spending time on the basics.” - Marcus Buckingham

60. “In fact, over the last twenty years, authors have offered up over nine thousand different systems, languages, principles, and paradigms to help explain the mysteries of management and leadership.” - Marcus Buckingham

61. “Simply put, this is one insight we heard echoed by tens of thousands of great managers: People don't change that much.Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.Try to draw out what was left in.That is hard enough.” - Marcus Buckingham

62. “Imagine going to work every day to do only and exactly what you love!! All the work gets done because of the abundant diversity of your team. Different skills, interests and talents are woven together into a whole that is much greater than the sum of the parts!” - Denise Moreland

63. “Many small businesses are doomed from day one, not from competition or the economy, but from the ignorance of their owners . . . their destiny is already decided because they have no idea how a business should be operated.” - William Manchee

64. “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

65. “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

66. “The Tone is the Message.” - Kevin T. McCarney

67. “Only do what only you can do.” - Paul Sloane

68. “Cliché: "The MBA changed my life."What it really means: "A fantastic career, a great social life and a healthy bank balance...three of the things I had before I started the program.” - Sameer Kamat

69. “The rationales for centralized, to-down decision making - control, direction, and compliance - melts away when individuals are tightly aligned with the company's values and goals, accountable for their actions, and self-regulated.” - Dov Seidman

70. “To make a decision, all you need is authority. To make a good decision, you also need knowledge, experience, and insight.” - Denise Moreland