Leadership

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. ~ Stephen Covey

This management quote illustrates the symbiotic relationship between leadership and management. It isn’t enough to lead–you must have management to bring the correct actions.

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

This management quote illustrates that much of what we call management is simply trying to fight the fact that we aren’t treating people the way we’d like to be treated.

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. ~ Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker’s management quote is in a similar vein to Welch’s. This is often the result of putting a freshly minted MBA with no real work experience in charge of managing people. The natural tendencies of someone with a bunch of management classes and no real leadership experience is often counter productive.

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny. ~ Kin Hubbard

While this quote is about management, the same thing can be said about most areas of life. If you aren’t getting the results you want, it probably means you are doing something wrong. Don’t blame it on destiny because that will keep you from finding the problem.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
~ Abraham Lincoln

This leadership quote by Abraham Lincoln is one of the first things that comes to mind when a a high flying leader is brought to their knees by some sort of scandal. Positions of leadership and power set humans up to fail and as Lincoln points out, are the ultimate test of one’s character.

It is easy to have morals and character when you don’t think you can get away with anything else, but power and high leadership positions create a situation where people must rely on their real internal character instead of simply conforming to socially acceptable morals.