Achieving the highest possible return on human capital must be every manager’s goal.

If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

When you want a thing done, ‚Don’t do it yourself‘ is a good motto for Scoutmasters.

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization, and then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person. I would put myself much more in the latter camp.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else’s affairs.

I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.

The business aspect is one of the most important things about having a music career, because every choice you make in a management meeting affects your life a year-and-a-half from now.

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.

When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

In the long run, your human capital is your main base of competition. Your leading indicator of where you’re going to be 20 years from now is how well you’re doing in your education system.

Example is leadership.

HartBeat Productions is a company established by me; it’s mine. I run it. I have employees.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

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

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity, and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.

I don’t think the government should be in the trailer-park business. I don’t think they know how to run a trailer park.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

I just think you ought to talk straight with your people.

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

Leadership is influence.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

Practice Golden-Rule 1 of Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Control is the source of strategic power.

One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he’d say, ‚Boss, we’ve got this, and that, and the other thing.‘ And I’d look at him and I’d say, ‚Good.‘

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.