Quote #45

The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make--for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre. -- The Practice of Management (1954)

More from Peter F. Drucker

  1. A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people's weaknesses rather than on their strengths. -- …
  2. There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer. -- The Practice of Management (1954)
  3. An organization is 'sick' -- when promotion becomes more important to its people than accomplishment of their job -- when it is more concer…
  4. It does not follow from the separation of planning and doing in the analysis of work that the planner and the doer should be two different …
  5. No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for p…
  6. It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not, ...The enterprise must demand it of him. -- The Practice of Management (…
  7. Through systematic terror, through indoctrination, through systematic manipulation of stimulus, reward, and punishment, we can today break …
  8. --A manager sets objectives--A manager organizes--A manager motivates and communicates--A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures--A …

All Peter F. Drucker quotes