Peter Drucker Quotes for Leaders

Peter Drucker was a management consultant, educator and author who was a pioneer in business education.  His leadership lessons were taught to business students for generations.

Drucker’s work emphasized the relationships between people in an organization and the organization’s functioning.  He authored 39 books – many of which were published in the middle of the 20th century.  

What’s fascinating is that as you read through these collected quotes from Drucker, you’ll see that his insights are as relevant today as they were in the industrial economy of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Enjoy these Peter Drucker leadership quotes!

Peter Drucker Quotes on Leadership

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.

Peter Drucker

Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Peter Drucker

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.

Peter Drucker

 Management is doing the right thing; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers.

Peter Drucker

Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.

Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker Quotes on Measurement

What gets measured gets managed.

Peter Drucker

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker Quotes on Culture

Problem solving, however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results.

Peter Drucker

People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete – the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.

Peter Drucker

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

Peter Drucker

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.

Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker Quotes on Effectiveness

The test of organization is not genius. It is its capacity to make common people achieve uncommon performance.

Peter Drucker

The effective executive does not make staffing decisions to minimize weaknesses but to maximize strength.

Peter Drucker

Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.

Peter Drucker

I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time.

Peter Drucker

Thanks for reviewing these Peter Drucker quotes. Can you see how they apply to the work you do? Which quotes caught your eye?

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Peter Drucker had a profound impact on me early in my career. My favorite Drucker book is The Effective Executive. See it on Amazon.

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Make it a great day!