Sometimes working on projects can become overwhelming. “Tedious’ might be an understatement when you have so many project management hurdles popping out of nowhere. Planning quotes will help managers to motivate them to make clear plans to help achieve organizational goals.
As a project management company, we understand how it feels to work on a project for months and then having it fall apart due to the simplest of mistakes in the planning process.
These mistakes could be directly or indirectly related to subordinates’ actions, the indecisiveness of lower-level management and lack of time management – so on, and so forth.
The stakeholders might be at fault, but the full blame always comes to the managers because they have the last say when the company is making any decision.
To make sure that the managers do not make errors in the planning process and the company thrives, here are 12 of the best planning quotes for managers that they can follow to bring more success to the business.
Here are The 12 Best Planning Quotes for Managers
1. “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near one.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
This quote is from one of the most iconic novels by the famous J.R.R. Tolkien, who, by the way, also wrote Lord of the Rings. In this quote, what the writer is saying, is that it does not matter if you think that a specific risk or scope creep is not worthy of consideration, you need to acknowledge it.
This acknowledgment of potential risks is a win-win for you in every scenario, whether it tries to harm your project later, or not. Therefore, this quote is so moving and inspirational and talks to any and every reader on so many different levels.
2. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was one of the most influential people of his time, being one of America’s founding fathers and all. In this quote, he has an amazing message to all the people who are in power currently, may it be politics or even a manager of a company.
The quote tells us that the managers should always be ready to face any failure or harm that their project may face. They should be ready with all their resources to neutralize the threat.
Why? Well, if they don’t prepare themselves for any and every negative possibility, they are going to be annihilated if a disaster ever falls. So, you should always prepare perfectly otherwise you’re going to fail miserably.
3. “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem
This quote directly relates to the most important and beautiful quality of the human mind, Imagination. Anyone in this world can plan for something and struggle to make it happen, but if they don’t have the imagination or a dream to base that planning on, they will not succeed.
This is what Gloria Steinem, a Feminist Icon, is trying to say in this quote that whatever you want to do in life or whatever you want to achieve so desperately, you should first have a vision for it and then you should devise a plan for it.
4. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
This famous quote by the amazing Abraham Lincoln clearly shows how important your tools and resources are regarding any development process you embark upon.
It states that no matter how much time you are given in the planning phase, you should always spend a good chunk of it to make sure all your tools and resources are ready to achieve everything you have in your mind.
These tools and resources can be like the best project management software “nTask”, to take care of all of your PM needs or a communication application like Microsoft Teams to make sure all of your remote team members are in the mix and there are no blind spots when it comes to communication.
5. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra with his witty baseball wisdom, tells you very clearly in this quote that you should always have a proper roadmap of the development process imprinted on your mind and the mind of your development team. And if that is not the case, then you will never reach the desired destination.
6. “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy
President John Kennedy was an amazing president who had a lot of progressive views and the actual tendency to do a lot of good in the world, was sadly swept away from this world before he could do anything.
But in this quote, he very wisely says that you should always plan and execute your development process when there isn’t a critical need of your product or service because if you develop that process when everyone badly needs it, it might be too late and they’ll despise you for it.
7. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
The First Lady of the United States of America, Eleanor Roosevelt, was just as visionary as any American President.
She shares her extraordinary wisdom with us in this quote stating, that if you just “wish” about something to happen in a certain way rather than planning for it, then you are in serious trouble.
You should always plan for every little thing that you want because the amount of energy needed to wish for something is the same for planning something in your head.
8. “Have a bias towards action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.” – Indira Gandhi
This quote is perfect for all project managers out there working in the market right now. It clearly states that you should never force your team to do something that they cannot do. Meaning that any project that is too big for its britches must be cut down into smaller chunks.
These chunks are little goals and milestones that the development team can easily achieve using the planning that the manager did for them at the start of the project. This will help the team succeed, without burning all their energies and gain nothing.
9. “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes, but no plans.” – Peter F. Drucker
This quote highlights one of the most important aspects of planning and starting a project and that is commitment. If you are a manager and you are asked to plan and start a specific project that will bring value to the company, you need to make sure that you have the support of all of the stakeholders.
These stakeholders related to the project can be both internally and externally related to the company and the project. If these investors are both emotionally and financially invested in the project, then you should go and plan for the project otherwise it’s a waste of time.
10. “A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” – Confucius
Confucius would have been an amazing project manager if he were alive today. This quote is an amazing reminder that the managers working in the organizational paradigm, have to have a roadmap that doesn’t just end at the successful completion of the development process.
Rather, they have to have a plan that is far more extensive and should take care of any and every problem that the project may have when it reaches the market and ultimately to the customers.
This extensive plan will help them make the project more reliable and less prone to any risk or scope creep.
11. “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry
This quote by the famous Football player Tom Landry clearly states how important it is to follow the roadmap that was created in the design phase.
Creating a roadmap is a necessity for the development of any and every project that is being developed but the hard part is not to create the roadmap but to follow it during every step of the development process to achieve success.
For that to happen, most teams have to make a lot of sacrifices so that they can fulfill the vision of the company regarding a particular project and these planning quotes can help your team in motivating to do more.
12. “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” – Thomas Edison
If you are a project manager, you need to have the best possible knowledge of market trends and needs. You need to have the information about something that will happen months from now and for that, you need good resources. These planning quotes will help you to motivate yourself for making clear plans.
Why Planning Quotes Are Often Necessary?
When good managers know a phenomenon that is bound for the benefit of the company, they devise a roadmap or a plan to be ready in the anticipation of that phenomenon. When it finally happens, the concerned manager can simply put their plan into action and make the most of the opportunity. The above planning quotes can help you in your decision making.
To eloquently put it all to an end, planning quotes for managers are not what they want, but it is something that’s “needed” from time to time.
