In the same spirit as our collection of leadership quotes, here are a number of management quotes for your inspiration and enjoyment.
The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work. ~ Agha Hasan Abedi
This quote reminds us that people matter–something that many individuals in management quickly forget.
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. ~ Stephen Covey
This management quote makes an interesting distinction between leadership or setting a direction and management–the execution of the plan.
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
Jack Welch points out that the right people and the right motivation can solve most management problems. Often management is the process of trying to get the wrong individual to perform for less than they are worth.
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
Employees want their jobs to be important and fulfilling. This quote by Hawken is a good reminder that management has the ability to make a problem interesting or boring–often simply in the way the problem is framed and presented.
Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish. ~ Marcus Aurelius
This quotation is relevant in a number of different areas. Along with other management quotes it is a good reminder that we need to find the right people for the right jobs. Just because we can’t do something well doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else out there who can do it well and easily. Management is matching those individuals with the right positions.
Just because we aren’t good at something doesn’t mean that our competition is unable to do it.
Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds. ~ Colin Powell
People matter. I don’t think Powell lessens the importance of organization and planning, but he does point out that success depends on the people not the plans.
Make your top managers rich and they will make you rich. ~ Robert H. Johnson
I’ve seen management put more effort into trying to figure out how not to reward top performers than trying to figure out how to grow their business. This management quote reminds us that there can be a beneficial two way benefit by making high performers rich.
We cling to hierarchies because our place in a hierarchy is, rightly or wrongly, a major indicator of our social worth. ~ Harold Leavitt
There aren’t many companies that abandon traditional hierarchy structures. This statement may reveal one of the reasons why.
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. ~ Peter Drucker
This is a beautiful management quote and so very true. How many times have you run into all kinds of obstacles thrown up in the name of management.
Men are going to have to learn to be managers in a world where the organization will come close to consisting of all chiefs and one Indian. The Indian, of course, is the computer. ~ Thomas Whisler
This quote is different than the others as it tries to predict the future. I’m not sure that we’ll ever get there, but it is an interesting thought.
The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds. ~ Casey Stengel
This quote is a bit more humorous than the other quotes on this page, but there is still an element of truth it it.
No business in the world has ever made more money with poorer management. ~ Bill Terry
And yet that is exactly what many businesses try when they need to make a better profit.
A good manager is a man who isn’t worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. ~ HSM Burns
This sums up a lot of management quotes. The role of the manager is to help develop others.
Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t. ~ Peter Drucker
“Top” management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I’m still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is. ~ Robert Townsend
When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact. ~ Warren Buffet
Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny. ~ Kin Hubbard
