Peter Drucker on Leadership Quotes

"It does not follow from the separation of planning and doing in the analysis of work that the planner and the doer should be two different people. It does not follow that the industrial world should be divided into two classes of people: a few who decide what is to be done, design the job, set the pace, rhythm and motions, and order others about; and the many who do what and as they are told. p. 284"

"The worker's effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed. p. 380"

"We will have to learn to lead people rather then to contain them. p. 30"

"A superior who works on his own development sets an almost irresistible example. p. 427"

"A manager's task is to make the strengths of people effective and their weakness irrelevant - and that applies fully as much to the manager's boss as it applies to the manager's subordinates p. 139"

"I would hope that American managers - indeed, managers worldwide - continue to appreciate what I have been saying almost from day one: that management is so much more than exercising rank and privilege, that it is much more than "making deals." Management affects people and their lives. p. 351"

"Executives do many things in addition to making decisions. But only executives make decisions. The first managerial skill is, therefore, the making of effective decisions. p. 465"

"Absolute size by itself is no indicator of success and achievement, let alone of managerial competence. Being the right size is. p. 672"

"Keep the boss aware. Bosses, after all, are held responsible by their own bosses for the performance of their subordinates. They must be able to say: "I know what Anne [or John] is trying to do." p. 139"

"The purpose of an organization is to enable common men to do uncommon things. p. 455"

"A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people's weaknesses rather than on their strengths. p. 157"

"The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it. p. 343"

"- A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures - A manager develops people. p. 344"

"To be a manager requires more than a title, a big office, and other outward symbols of rank. It requires competence and performance of a high order. p. 398"

"[[Management] has authority only as long as it performs. p. 301"

"What the worker needs is to see the plant as if he were a manager. Only thus can he see his part; from his part he cannot reach the whole. This "seeing" is not a matter of information, training courses, conducted plant tours, or similar devices. What is needed is the actual experience of the whole in and through the individual's work."

"That people even in well paid jobs choose ever earlier retirement is a severe indictment of our organizations -- not just business, but government service, the universities. These people don't find their jobs interesting. The Shape of Things to Come: An Interview with Peter F. Drucker Leader to Leader, No. 1 (Summer 1996)"

"Top management as a function and as a structure was first developed by Georg von Siemens (1839-1901) in Germany between 1870 and 1880, when he designed and built the Deutsche Bank and made it, within a very few years, into continental Europe's leading and most dynamic financial institution. p. 605"

"Once a year ask the boss, "What do I or my people do that helps you to do your job?" and "What do I or my people do that hampers you?" p. 137"

"Without institution there is no management. But without management there is no institution. p. 5"