Marcus Buckingham Quotes

You measure your people and you take action on those that don't measure up.

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

When employees underperform, a leader tells them so.

CEOs who can hire properly, that's the most important part of the job. The CEO's job is really to hire the right team and execute the vision second.

A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.

The single biggest lesson I learned was when a hire isn't working out fire them fast. My biggest mistakes, and where I've seen the worst results, were when I gave someone too many chances, or let a situation drift on for too long because I couldn't bring myself to terminate it.

Someone asked me about what's it like managing 2.2 million associates, and I said, 'When they're Wal-Mart associates, it's not all that hard because of the quality and the depth of our talent.' I'm really proud of the fact that 70% of the managers in the U.S. started as hourly associates with our company.

I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.

Over the past several years, I've been more in a managerial role.

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

I have a good eye for talent, and my talent performs the best.

I think we are reluctant to move people out of an organization when there is not a good fit. It is typically not because someone is stupid or lazy or incompetent; it is a lot more subtle than that.

When you're an engineer, you want to analyze things a lot. But if you believe that the most important data points are people, then you have to make conclusions in relatively short order. Because you want to push the people who are doing great. And you want to either develop the people who are not or, in a worst case, they need to be somewhere else.

If performance management were a movie, it will become less 'Gladiator' and more 'Moneyball.'

Naturally, managers and coaches are trying to find different ways to work.

There are very few black-and-white truths in management or in business, but one that I have found is that people either hire people who are smarter than them, or people hire people they can control.

Don't be afraid to let someone go if it's not working. You're not a bad boss. You're not a bad CEO.

[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.

Some people are in charge of pens who shouldn't be in charge of brooms.

Failing to differentiate among employees — and holding on to bottom-tier performers — is actually the cruelest form of management there is.

Organizations cannot make a genius out of an incompetent. On the other hand, disorganization can scarcely fail to result in efficiency.

Manage by objectives. Tell people exactly what you want them to do and then get out of their way.

I finished reading High Output Management by Andrew Grove, which had such valuable insights for leaders that I've been forcing managers at Duolingo to read the book.

There are "four keys" to becoming an excellent manager: finding the right fit for employees, focusing on strengths of employees, defining the right results, and hiring for talent - not just knowledge and skills.

Management of outcomes may not be any more than a skill. It does not require knowledge.