People are constantly trying to find inspiration on all sorts of mediums and sources. While some turn to music, others might find the encouragement from a simple quote. We rounded up our favorite team management quotes from all sorts of people but I also took the liberty to add a piece of wisdom from my colleague’s articles which you can find on our blog.
Let’s dive in.
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.”
– Dwight Eisenhower
“A leader must have the courage to act against an expert’s advice.”
– James Callaghan
“Good teams incorporate teamwork into their culture, creating the building blocks for success.”
-Ted Sundquist
“Any unpleasant surprises are simply avoided by communicating clearly throughout the project”
“Never expect than anyone remembers anything you said in the last meeting or conversation.Put it all in writing and make checklists your friend.”
“Management’s job is to convey leadership’s message in a compelling and inspiring way. Not just in meetings, but also by example.”
– Jeffrey Gitomer Read
“Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.”
– Tom Peters
“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”
– Peter Drucker
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”.
– Peter Drucker
“Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn’t management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team’s mission.”
– Pat Riley
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
– Michael Jordan
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
– Henry Ford
“First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.”
– A Bug’s Life
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
– Charles Richards
“Plans are worthless. Planning is essential.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.”
– Denis Waitley
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
– Peter Drucker
“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.”
– Arnold Glasow
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”
– John C. Maxwell
“Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That’s what management is all about.”
– Tom DeMarco
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”
– Brian Tracy
“My belief is that communication is the best way to create strong relationships.”
– Jada Pinkett Smith
“The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.”
– Jim Rohn
“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”
– Diana Scharf
“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.”
– Joel Barker
“I feel that the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it.”
– Reggie Jackson
“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”
– Mattie Stepanek
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
– Michael Jordan
“As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”
– Amy Poehler
Team management quotes from Teamweek.
“A team is successful only when they have a common goal. Not only does this goal need to be set, but it also has to be communicated to each team member.”
– Laura Noodapera
“No one can teach you how to be productive, whether it’s in the office or at home, you have to do that for yourself and see what best works for you. There will be days when you will get to work on dozens of things in a day and there will be days when you will get none done.”
– Nina Žderić
“Sometimes it’s good to step back and let others take the wheel. It’s smart to admit your mistakes and let other people win in the idea game. You won’t always be leading the team or have the best idea, and that’s a good thing. Making a mistake isn’t the end of the world!”
– Alari Aho
“Focus on results only. Agree with every department/team/person on what is their KPI (key performance indicator). The focus has to be clear, and there has to be a numerical goal agreed upon too. After you have done this, you don’t really care if somebody is working 8 hours a day (which btw is bullshit anyway, you can rarely do over 6 hours of productive work in a day. I know, I Toggld it), you just follow up how people are progressing with their KPIs. The approach is very black & white. It doesn’t allow anyone to hide between busy-work, only results matter.”
– Annika Helendi
What’s your favorite team management or project management quote? Drop it in the comments below and we’ll add it to the list.
Andrei is a Growth Hacker on Teamweek's marketing team. He is the person behind most of Teamweek's SEO-driven projects, including the budget calculator and the worst productivity tips generator. He enjoys writing about project management, graphic design, and anything tech.
