26 motivational business management quotes (2025)

26 powerful business management quotes to boost your mind

Here are some quotes to reflect on in times when you are dealing with burnout and need extra motivation:

1. The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work. – Agha Hasan Abedi
2. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
3. People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is a car or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps. – Mary Kay Ash
4. Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. – John Ruskin
5. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts. – Richard Branson
6. If at first, you don’t succeed, try management. – Stephen Hawking
7. If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. – George S. Patton
8. The best way to predict the future is to study the past or prognosticate. – Robert Kiyosaki
9. The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product. – Peter Drucker
10. They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. – Andy Warhol
11. Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people. – John D. Rockefeller
12. Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. – Peter Drucker
13. In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. – Harold Geneen
14. Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change. – Tom Peters
15. Real management is developing people through work. – Agha Hasan Abedi
16. Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t. – Peter Drucker
17. “The key to successful management is keeping the people who hate you away from those who are still undecided.” – Casey Stengel
18. Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. – Bill Gates
19. Management is efficient in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. – Stephen Covey
20. The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t. – Anthea Turner
21. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. – Eleanor Roosevelt
22. Management is nothing more than motivating other people. – Lee Iacocca
23. Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing. – Warren Bennis
24. “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” – Tom Peters
25. Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn’t management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team’s mission. – Pat Riley
26. The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets the people to do the greatest things. – Ronald Reagan

Conclusion

These quotes encourage us to think deeply about our roles as leaders, to question our assumptions, and to strive constantly for improvement. Remember, the most impactful managers are those who not only achieve results but also leave a lasting, positive influence on their teams and organizations.