Mary Parker Follett Quotes

Quotes about:

• Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Exercise, Leader, Essentials

  133 Copy quote

• There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Differences, Wish, Three

  Mary Parker Follett (1957). “Dynamic administration: the collected papers of Mary Parker Follett”

  126 Copy quote

• Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, not absorbed.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Differences, Diversity, Unity

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.39, Penn State Press

  179 Copy quote

• Management is the art of getting things done through people.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Art, People, Done

  122 Copy quote

• That is always our problem, not how to get control of people, but how all together we can get control of a situation.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Together We Can, People, Unity

  Mary Parker Follett (2013). “Freedom and Co-ordination (RLE: Organizations): Lectures in Business Organization”, p.24, Routledge

  138 Copy quote

• Conflict is resolved not through compromise, but through invention.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Compromise, Conflict, Invention

  13 Copy quote

• Part of the task of the leader is to make others participate in his leadership. The best leader knows how to make his followers actually feel power themselves, not merely acknowledge his power.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Leadership, Tasks, Followers

  Mary Parker Follett (1977). “Dynamic administration: the collected papers of Mary Parker Follett”, Buccaneer Books

  62 Copy quote

• The most successful leader of all is the one who sees another picture not yet actualized. He sees the things which are not yet there... Above all, he should make his co-workers see that it is not his purpose which is to be achieved, but a common purpose, born of the desires and the activities of the group.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Successful, Common Purpose, Leader

  55 Copy quote

• Give your difference, welcome my difference, unify all difference in the larger whole - such is the law of growth. The unifying of difference is the eternal process of life - the creative synthesis, the highest act of creation, the at-onement.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Law, Differences, Giving

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.40, Penn State Press

  70 Copy quote

• All polishing is done by friction.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Done, Friction

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  20 Copy quote

• Leader and followers are both following the invisible leader - the common purpose. The best executives put this common purpose clearly before their group. While leadership depends on depth of conviction and the power coming therefrom there must also be the ability to share that conviction with others, the ability to make purpose articulate. And then that common purpose becomes the leader.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Leadership, Common Purpose, Followers

  Mary Parker Follett (2013). “Freedom and Co-ordination (RLE: Organizations): Lectures in Business Organization”, p.55, Routledge

  54 Copy quote

• It seems to me that whereas power usually means power-over, the power of some person or group over some other person or group, it is possible to develop the conception of power-with, a jointly developed power, a co-active, not a coercive power.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Mean, Groups, Nonviolent Communication

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  32 Copy quote

• The insight to see possible new paths, the courage to try them, the judgment to measure results - these are the qualities of a leader.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Inspirational, Leader, Trying

  Mary Parker Follett (2013). “Freedom and Co-ordination (RLE: Organizations): Lectures in Business Organization”, p.53, Routledge

  11 Copy quote

• We must face life as it is and understand that diversity is its most essential feature.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Diversity, Essentials, Faces

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  45 Copy quote

• What people often mean by getting rid of conflict is getting rid of diversity, and it is of the utmost importance that these should not be considered the same.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Mean, Acceptance, People

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  17 Copy quote

• It is possible to conceive conflict as not necessarily a wasteful outbreak of incompatibilities, but a normal process by which socially valuable differences register themselves for the enrichment of all concerned.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Healing, Differences, Normal

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  21 Copy quote

• the best leaders try to train their followers themselves to become leaders. ... they wish to be leaders of leaders.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Leadership, Wish, Trying

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  63 Copy quote

• Many people tell me what I ought to do and just how I ought to do it, but Few have made me want to do something.

  Mary Parker Follett

  People, Want, Made

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.230, Penn State Press

  36 Copy quote

• Coercive power is the curse of the universe, coactive power, the enrichment and advancement of every human soul.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Soul, Advancement, Curse

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  58 Copy quote

• In crowds we have unison, in groups harmony. We want the single voice but not the single note; that is the secret of the group.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Voice, Unity, Secret

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.86, Penn State Press

  55 Copy quote

• the leader releases energy, unites energies, and all with the object not only of carrying out a purpose, but of creating further and larger purposes. And I do not mean here by larger purposes mergers or more branches; I speak of larger in the qualitative rather than the quantitative sense. I mean purposes which will include more of those fundamental values for which most of us agree we are really living.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Leadership, Mean, Creating

  Mary Parker Follett (1957). “Dynamic administration: the collected papers of Mary Parker Follett”

  8 Copy quote

• We should never allow ourselves to be bullied by an either-or. There is often the possibility of something better than either of these two alternatives.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Two, Alternatives, Possibility

  Mary Parker Follett, Pauline Graham (1996). “Mary Parker Follett--prophet of management: a celebration of writings from the 1920s”, Harvard Business Press

  29 Copy quote

• The ignoring of differences is the most fatal mistake in politics or industry or international life: every difference that is swept up into a bigger conception feeds and enriches society; every difference which is ignored feeds on society and eventually corrupts it.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Mistake, Differences, Ignored

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.40, Penn State Press

  32 Copy quote

• Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Unity, Aim, Uniformity

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.39, Penn State Press

  6 Copy quote

• Concepts can never be presented to me merely, they must be knitted into the structure of my being, and this can only be done through my own activity.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Done, Structure, My Own

  18 Copy quote

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