"Executives do many things in addition to..." - Quote by Peter Drucker
Executives do many things in addition to making decisions. But only executives make decisions. The first managerial skill is, therefore, the making of effective decisions.
More by Peter Drucker
“We can't make people better by trying to eliminate their weaknesses, but we can help then perform better by building on their strengths.”
“The arts alone give direct access to experience. To eliminate them from education - or worse, to tolerate them as cultural ornaments - is antieducational obscurantism. It is foisted on us by the pedants and snobs of Hellenistic Greece who considered artistic performance fit only for slaves.”
“Entrepreneurship rests on a theory of economy and society. The theory sees change as normal and indeed as healthy. And it sees the major task in society – and especially in the economy – as doing something different rather than doing better what is already being done. This is basically what Say, two hundred years ago, meant when he coined the term entrepreneur.”
More on Decision Making
“If you are guided by opinion polls, you are not practicing leadership -- you are practicing followership.”
“Once you know the difference between right and wrong, you have lots fewer decisions to make.”
“You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.”
More on Management
“All the great enterprises of the world are run by a few smart men: their aides and associates run down by rapid stages to the level of sheer morons. Everyone knows that this is true of government, but we often forget that it is equally true of private undertakings. In the average great bank, or railroad, or other corporation the burden of management lies upon a small group. The rest are ciphers.”
“Leadership is all about people … and getting the most out of people.”
“Work mixed with management becomes not only easier but more profitable. The time is past when anyone can boast about 'hard work' without having a corresponding result to show for it.”