Misattributed
Variant: Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.
Source: The Essential Drucker
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American leadership expert
Peter Drucker, and Warren Bennis, as quoted in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) by Stephen R. Covey, p. 101
1980s
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Peter Drucker, and Warren Bennis, as quoted by Covey, in The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989), this has sometimes become misattributed to him.
Misattributed
Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American leadership expert
Bennis Warren and Burt Nanus (1985) Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge. Harper and Row. p. 21
1980s
“Managers cannot learn from doing things right, only from doing them wrong”
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist
Source: 2000s, A little book of f-laws: 13 common sins of management, 2006, p. 37 cited in: Andrew Carey (2008) Inside Project Red Stripe: Incubating Innovation and Teamwork at the Economist. p. 49.
“If you do the right thing, eventually you will inspire others to do the right thing.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru
Source: Opportunity and Self-Transcendence (1977), p. 21
John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist
As quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007) edited by Ted Goodman, p. 175
“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist
A Short History of England (1917)
“The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same thing.”
Steve Maraboli (1975)
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 61
“Unless you do the right things, the right things will not happen to you.”
Sadhguru book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy
Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy
