“You manage things; you lead people”

“You manage things; you lead people” has been credited to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (1906-1992). In a 1982 navy magazine, she was quoted:
 
“We manage things. We lead people.”
   
“You manage things. You lead people,” Hopper was quoted as saying in a 1983 newspaper story. Hopper’s statement on management and leadership has been widely cited.
 
 
Wikiquote: Grace Hopper
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (9 December 1906 – 1 January 1992) was a U.S. Naval officer, and an early computer programmer. She was the developer of the first compiler for a computer programming language; at the end of her service she was the oldest serving officer in the United States Navy.
(...)
The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper (1987)
“The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper” by Philip Schieber in OCLC Newsletter, No. 167 (March/April 1987)
. You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.
 
All Hands—magazine of the U.S. Navy (September 1982)
Pg. 6, col. 2 (‘Grace Hopper—A Living Legend”):
“Young people are looking for positive leadership,” she said. “That’s something we forgot about.” She refuted those who strive to become “managers” by saying: “We manage things. We lead people.”
 
10 August 1983, Evansville (IN) Courier, “Computer captain says ‘crew’ needs leadership” by Larry Thomas, pg. 21, cols. 2-3:
At age 76, U.S. Navy Capt. Grace Hopper knows there aren’t as many nanoseconds in her future as there once were.
(...)
Capt. Hopper, one of the Navy’s top computer experts and a much sought-after lecturer, told the group such leadership is lacking. And she placed the blame on college and university business schools, who she said put more emphasis on management than leadership.
 
“Somehow, we’ve lost that concept in leadership,” she said. “You manage things. You lead people.”
 
13 November 1983, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), sec. 7, pg. 1-IC, col. 2 ad:
“You don’t manage people, you manage things. You lead people.”
—Edwin Edwards
(...)
RE-ELECT
Warren Landry
COUNCILMAN AT LARGE
 
Ohio State University
COMMODORE GRACE MURRAY HOPPER
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
Friday , Dec. 7, 1984
Pg. 10:
ONLY ONE OUTFIT NEVER LOST THOSE CONCEPTS OF LEADERSHIP. AND I THINK I F I HAD A MARINE STANDING BESIDE ME, WHAT HE WOULD SAY WOULD BE “WHEN THE GOING GETS ROUGH, YOU CAN NOT MANAGE A MAN INTO COMBAT, YOU MUST LEAD HIM.” WE MANAGE THINGS. WE LEAD PEOPLE.
 
15 August 1986, Altoona (PA) Mirror, “Adm. Grace Hopper, 79, ends 43-year Navy career” (UPI), pg. A8, cols. 1-2:
“We need to tell young people, ‘Go ahead and do it.’ It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission,” she said in urging more leadership and less management in government research efforts.
 
“We must provide the leadership. You manage things. You lead people,” said Hopper, who twice has been spared mandatory retirement by congressional decree and was promoted to admiral in 1983 by President Reagan.
   
Fortune magazine
BOONE SPEAKS His name spells trouble for the ‘‘Good Ol’ Boys’’ who run bureaucratic American corporations. In his candid, soon-to-be-published autobiography, T. Boone Pickens Jr. reveals how and why he went after Big Oil—and draws a fascinating self-portrait.
By EXCERPTED FROM BOONE, BY T. BOONE PICKENS JR., PUBLISHED BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY. COPYRIGHT (c) 1987 BY T. BOONE PICKENS JR., AND BEATRICE CARR PICKENS.
February 16, 1987
(...)
A management style is an amalgamation of the best of other people you have known and respected, and eventually you develop your own style. Mine can be summed up pretty quickly:—Master the art of leadership. A wise woman, retired U.S. Navy Admiral Grace Hopper, expressed my philosophy succinctly when she said, ‘‘You don’t manage people. You manage things. You lead people.’’ She was right.
 
From The OCLC Newsletter, March/April, 1987, No. 167 (Editor and article author is Philip Schieber.)
The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper
(...)
On advice to the young (whom she defines as “anybody half my age”): “You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.”
 
Google Books
The Best Things Anybody Ever Said about Sports, Management and Marketing
By Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz
Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western
2005
Pg. 89:
“You cannot manage men into battle. You manage things; you lead people.”
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992)
Admiral, U.S. Navy
   
Google Books
The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Leadership
Edited by Thomas Cutler
Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press
2015
Pg. 88:
You don’t manage people; you manage things. You lead people.
—Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
 
Twitter
GuideSpark
‏@guidespark
“You manage things; you lead people.”–Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. 27 Best #employeeengagement quotes: http://ow.ly/KpRss  via @Kruse
1:50 PM - 17 Mar 2015