Denise Levertov:

I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals.

Henry David Thoreau:

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

John C. Maxwell:

The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness.

Margaret J. Wheatley:

Destroying is a necessary function in life. Everything has its season, and all things eventually lose their effectiveness and die.

Maxine Hong Kingston:

To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world -- that I am able to change it in positive ways.

Peter Drucker:

What is the managers job? It is to direct the resources and the efforts of the business toward opportunities for economically significant results. This sounds trite -- and it is. But every analysis of actual allocation of resources and efforts in business that I have ever seen or made showed clearly that the bulk of time, work, attention, and money first goes to problems rather than to opportunities, and, secondly, to areas where even extraordinarily successful performance will have minimal impact on results.

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Peter Drucker:

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

Peter Drucker:

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Peter Drucker:

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.

Stephen Covey:

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

William Arthur Ward:

Flying off the handle sometimes causes hammers and humans to lose their heads, as well as their effectiveness.