Peter Drucker Quotes

[Good managers] know that people have 'good' sides and 'bad' sides and that the secret of good management is in magnifying the former and toning down the latter.

The corporate world is appallingly bad at capitalizing on the strengths of its people.

Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.

You don't build a business --you build people-- and then people build the business.

Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relations with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first-line attention. In this regard we could learn much from the Japanese. We must reinvest in the human side of management.

The best leaders realize their success depends on their people.

When you choose a managerial path, you are choosing to devote your life to people. Period.

Good leaders understand that they are stewards. They must find the best people they can, giving them the opportunity to join in the journey developing them, and encouraging them to reach their potential. But they must hold on to people lightly. Those who start with you seldom finish with you.

My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.

Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.

More and more, leadership, whether it's profit or nonprofit, is about recruiting and keeping talented people. That's the biggest challenge. Yes, you've got to create systems that will enable people easily to innovate continuously; you've got to be a system-builder. But finding and keeping geeks and shrinks is the biggest challenge. That means leaders have got to be salespeople, they've got to be recruiters, and they've got to be actively able to understand and keep the talent they have. Leadership is courtship. That's what it's becoming.

Too many companies waste time trying to eliminate their employees' weaknesses when, in fact, they should concentrate on developing their strengths.

If you want to be a leader of people, you must learn to watch events.

The manager cannot share his power with division superintendent or foreman or workman, but he can give them opportunities for developing their power.

I need to reach out to people who work for small to mid-sized companies, and help them identify and apply their strengths at work.

To get the respect of people, I think you've got to roll up your sleeves and lead with your people. The absolute key is treating your people well. Looking for the best in your people. Lots and lots of praise, no criticism.

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

It's all about finding and hiring people smarter than you. Getting them to join your business. And giving them good work. Then getting out of their way. And trusting them. You have to get out of the way so YOU can focus on the bigger vision. That's important. And here's the main thing....you must make them see their work as a MISSION.

Acquiring and keeping good people is a leader's most important task.

The quickest way to grow the sales of your business is to grow your people.

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

As far as being a coach, it's always fascinated me. It's a greater responsibility than most people give it credit for because you're dealing with people.

As always I am focused on training and coaching my team.

Hire people you get along with, and then let them do what they do best.

I'm slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can't motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles.