What can we learn about trust from the great leaders, teachers, writers and philosophers?
JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING
This week we turn our attention to the words of Peter Drucker, an author, educator and management consultant who was hailed by Business Week as the “man who invented management.” This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business, religious or military leader, the following contain many messages about character, competence and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.
- “To do the most good requires saying no to pressures to stray, and the discipline to stop doing what does not fit.”
- “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”
- “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
- “Every enterprise requires commitment to common goals and shared values. Without such commitment there is no enterprise; there is only a mob. The enterprise must have simple, clear, and unifying objectives. The mission of the organization has to be clear enough and big enough to provide common vision. The goals that embody it have to be clear, public, and constantly reaffirmed. Management’s first job is to think through, set, and exemplify those objectives, values, and goals.
- “Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.”
- “Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”
- “People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
- “Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
- “A person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.”
- “1. What is our mission? 2. Who is our customer? 3. What does the customer value? 4. What are our results? 5. What is our plan?”
- “The focus on contribution by itself supplies the four basic requirements of effective human relations: communications; teamwork; self-development; and development of others.”
- “Many brilliant people believe that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show where the bulldozers should go to work.”
- “Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”
- “Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here.” Everyone around the table nodded assent. “Then,” continued Mr. Sloan, “I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.”
- “plan, organize, integrate, motivate, and measure.”
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
- “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old”
- “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”
- “Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”
- “The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.”
My favorites are #4, #6, #16 and #20. How about yours?
Want to read more from this series?
We recently highlighted some of the best quotes on building trust from:
- John Wooden
- John C. Maxwell
- Zig Ziglar
- Mahtma Gandhi
- Dr. Seuss (for Mother’s Day)
- George Bernard Shaw
- Military Leaders (for Memorial Day)
- Napoleon Hill
- Deepak Chopra
- Quotes for fathers, from fathers and about fathers (for Father’s Day)
Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.
Our annual poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.
Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.
Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.
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