Bosses are often the primary reason for people either loving or leaving their jobs. Inspirational boss quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
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Most Famous Boss Quotes
Accomplishing the impossible means only the boss will add it to your regular duties. – Doug Larson
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. – Theodore Roosevelt
Increasingly, management’s role is not to organize work, but to direct passion and purpose. – Greg Satell
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility. – Peter F. Drucker
If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure. – Bill Gates
Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them. – Paul Hawken

In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way. – Tina Fey
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. – Theodore Roosevelt
Every boss started as a worker. – Moosa Rahat
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. – John C. Maxwell
In my house I’m the boss, my wife is just the decision maker. – Woody Allen
Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them. – Paul Hawken
A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could. – Charles Erwin Wilson
Boss may be on, but leader can be anyone. – Ameya Agrawal
He isn’t a real boss until he has trained subordinates to shoulder most of his responsibilities. – Ken Blanchard
A good boss realizes that they can also learn from those they work with no matter the level, title or position. Learning is a continuous habit and is one of the best lessons demonstrated by a good boss. – Byron Pulsifer
Talent is the multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time. – Marcus Buckingham
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. – John C. Maxwell
Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do. – Warren G. Bennis

No man goes before his time – unless the boss leaves early. – Groucho Marx
Be a leader with a ladder, not a boss with an order. – Debasish Mridha
The way to find the real boss is to find out who hires the lawyers. – David Weinbaum
The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds. – Casey Stengel
No great manager or leader ever fell from heaven; it’s learned, not inherited. – Tom Northup
Remember the Golden Rule, ‘Treat people as you would like to be treated’? The best managers break the Golden Rule every day. They would say don’t treat people as you would like to be treated. This presupposes that everyone breathes the same psychological oxygen as you. For example, if you are competitive, everyone must be similarly competitive. If you like to be praised in public, everyone else must too. Everyone must share your hatred of micromanagement. – Marcus Buckingham
The only time some people work like a horse is when the boss rides them. – Gabriel Heatter
The speed of the boss is the speed of the team. – Lee Iacocca
A good manager is a man who isn’t worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. – H. S. M. Burns
There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust. – Klaus Balkenhol
Don’t blame the boss. He has enough problems. – Donald Rumsfeld
What it takes to do a job will not be learned from management courses. It is principally a matter of experience, the proper attitude, and common sense–none of which can be taught in a classroom … Human experience shows that people, not organizations or management systems, get things done. – Hyman G. Rickover
Early on I realized that I had to hire people smarter and more qualified than I was in a number of different fields, and I had to let go of a lot of decision making. I can’t tell you how hard that is. But if you’ve imprinted your values on the people around you, you can dare to trust them to make the right moves. – Howard Schultz
Being a boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so. – Allison Gomme
Learn to obey before you command. – Solon
It is always a great honor to be the driver of your own car, to be the boss of your own fate. – Mehmet Murat ildan
Unless you accept anyone to be your boss, no man can be your boss. – Mehmet Murat ildan

The three “C’s”of leadership are Consideration, Caring, and Courtesy. Be polite to everyone. – Brian Tracy”
It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable. It’s the people you don’t. – Dick Grote
Every time you make a rule you take away a choice, and choice, with all of its illuminating repercussions, is the fuel for learning. – Marcus Buckingham
A good manager is a man who isn’t worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him. – H. S. M. Burns
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. – John C. Maxwell
In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way. – Tina Fey
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. – Sam Walton
Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. – Brian Tracy
A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. – John C. Maxwell
A leader leads by example, not by force. – Sun Tzu
Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, and how you’re led. – Steve Jobs
Focus on a few key objectives … I only have three things to do. I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I’m really in the business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas. – Jack Welch
Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; “a boss says Go!” a leader says “Let’s go!” – E.M. Kelly”
By working eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. – Robert Frost
A boss says “go and make sure you do it”; a leader says “let’s go and make it happen”. Bosses control people; leaders involve them. – Israelmore Ayivor
You’ll never make a fortune working for the boss man. – Jeannette Walls
The person who knows how will always have job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss – Diane Ravitch
A leader leads by example, not by force – Sun Tzu

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives – Theodore Roosevelt
The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work. – Agha Hasan Abedi
The four keys of great managers: (1) When selecting someone, they select for talent … not simply experience, intelligence, or determination. (2) When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes … not the right steps. (3) When motivating someone, they focus on strengths … not on weaknesses. (4) When developing someone, they help him find the right fit … not simply the next rung on the ladder. – Marcus Buckingham
Being a leader is making the people you love hate you a little more each day. – Patrick Ness
A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. – Witter Bynner
A good boss is a person who can tolerate my complaints and still manage to say hello to me every day. – Byron Pusifer
No great manager or leader ever fell from heaven; it’s learned, not inherited. – Tom Northup
A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame; a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all; a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery; a leader makes it interesting. – Russell H. Ewing
One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. – Arnold Glasow
Your real boss is the one who walks around under your hat. – Napoleon Hill
A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame; a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all; a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery; a leader makes it interesting. – Russell H. Ewing
The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say ‘well done’ – John Ashcroft
It’s always better to deliver the news yourself rather than allow your boss to be surprised. – Mary Cheney
Most bosses know instinctively that their power depends more on employee’s compliance than on threats or sanctions. – Bartolme, Fernanda
Leaders are influential because they live and inspire other people’s future. – Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel
Every boss, if you are forgetting, is another human being made of bones and flesh and likes it when his ego gets stroked. – Abhishek Ratna
Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present. – Rudy Giuliani
A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could. – Charles Erwin Wilson