Performance Management Quotes

A few of my favorite quotes about performance management:

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Sun Tzŭ c. 490 BC, Chinese military strategist

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker, American Management Guru

The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE

It is much more difficult to measure non performance than performance.
Harold S. Geneen, former CEO of ITT

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.
Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect & poet

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.
Mike Harding Roberts (unverified), project management consultant

Any more quotes on performance management that you would like to add?

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16 Responses to Performance Management Quotes

  1. Michael February 10, 2009 at 10:07 pm #

    There’s a Covey quote that’s a good alternative to your Drucker one:

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

  2. Mo Ghanem February 16, 2009 at 3:08 pm #

    I lik this one. Not sure who said it though
    “Management by objective works – only if you know the objectives.”

  3. Mary March 4, 2009 at 12:39 pm #

    Another one attributed to Drucker: “More controls does not mean more control.”

  4. ria May 22, 2009 at 3:40 am #

    “Any organisation which boasts one Statement of Purpose, one Vision, five Values, six Goals, seven Strategic Priorities and eight Key Performance Indicators without any clear correlation between them is producing a recipe for total confusion and exasperation.”

    Learmont Report, October 1995 on the Prison Service

  5. Jonathan May 22, 2009 at 8:29 am #

    Ria, I’ve never seen that quote before but like it. Do you have a link for it?

  6. Luke Vinci August 11, 2009 at 12:03 pm #

    Management is just as much about leading as leading others to do what you want them to do… here is a good one.
    “There’s no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit”
    – Ronald Reagan, CEO USA, 1980 – 1988

  7. Michael Ensley August 19, 2009 at 4:49 am #

    I have always liked Michael Porter’s “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

  8. Norman Marks September 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm #

    “If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti

  9. Norman Marks September 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm #

    1) Turn ignition key.
    2) Shift into drive.
    3) Press foot firmly on the throat of mediocrity.

    Source: Mercedes ad

  10. patrick November 20, 2012 at 4:30 am #

    The more you teach positive ideas to others , the better you learn them yourself.
    source ; Brian Tracy.

  11. Ryan Somers March 19, 2014 at 10:29 am #

    A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu

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