50 Inspirational Human Resources Quotes to Motivate and Empower Your Team

"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients."

- Richard Branson

"Before you are a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is about growing others."

- Jack Welch

"Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to."

- Richard Branson

"Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders."

- Tom Peters

"Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to."

- Richard Branson

"Growth and comfort do not coexist."

- Ginni Rometty

"Developing talent is business’s most important task—the sine qua non of competition in a corporate world."

- Peter Drucker

"Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways."

- Bob Nelson

"The value of a business is a function of how well the financial capital and intellectual capital are managed by human capital. You’d better get the human capital part right."

- Dave Bookbinder

"Financial Resources may be the lifeblood of a company, but Human Resources are the brains."

- Rob Silzer

"Human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep. You have to go looking for them; they’re not just lying around on the surface."

- Ken Robinson

"Not finance, not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and rare."

- Patrick Lencioni

"Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers."

- Robin Sharma

"Relationships, not power, drive you forward."

- Kim Malone Scott

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Human Resource isn’t a thing we do; it’s the thing that runs our business."

- Steve Wynn

"The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people."

- Tom Peters

"To win in the marketplace, you must first win the workplace."

- Doug Conant

"The way you ask for criticism and react when you get it goes a long way toward building trust – or destroying it."

- Kim Malone Scott

"In hard times, urging people to stay positive doesn’t boost their resilience. It denies their reality. People in pain don’t need good vibes only. They need a hand to stay steady through all the vibrations. Strength doesn’t come from forced smiles. It comes from feeling supported."

- Adam Grant

"HR professionals should view their work not as mere resource management but as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. HR professionals can foster a culture that values and nurtures each employee’s unique abilities. By doing so, they contribute to organizational success and the fulfillment and empowerment of individuals within the workforce."

- Dr. Dieter Veldsman

"Great vision without great people is irrelevant."

- James C. Collins

"I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way."

- Lee Iacocca

"Collectively, HR has the potential to truly be a force for good that makes a positive impact on organizations and societies if we have the courage to step up to the challenge."

- Dr. Marna van der Merwe

"Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers."

- Stephen R. Covey

"The right person for the right job is the key to achieving outstanding results."

- Jim Collins

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul, and remain consistently successful is to attract, hire, and keep great people."

- Danny Meyer

"I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies."

- Lawrence Bossidy

"Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want to fire somebody with his experience?"

- Thomas John Watson Sr.

"HR is not just simply about helping the people of the organization. It’s also about helping the organization meet its objectives. As HR practitioners, it is essential to align your people-oriented goals with the business goals to facilitate success for both the business and its employees."

- Erik van Vulpen

"As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands– one for helping yourself, the other for helping others."

- Audrey Hepburn

"None of us is as smart as all of us."

- Ken Blanchard

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision."

- Andrew Carnegie

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

- Henry Ford

"The essence of leadership is not getting overwhelmed by circumstances."

- Kim Scott

"We rise by lifting others."

- Robert Ingersoll

"Dear HR Pros: You are an employee. You are a human being."

- Laura Mazzullo

"Human Resources isn't a thing we do. It's the thing that runs our business."

- Steve Wynn

"You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too."

- Sam Rayburn

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."

- President Theodore Roosevelt

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."

- Warren Bennis

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way."

- John C. Maxwell

"Leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."

- Ralph Nader

"Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example."

- Cory Booker

"Belonging is not the same thing as feeling like you fit in. Belonging is when you feel valued for everything that makes you stand out."

- Liz Foslien

"Investing in your people is the best investment you can make."

- Indra Nooyi

"In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first."

- Lee Iacocca

"The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay."

- Henry Ford

"The best learners are also teachers."

- Dave Ulrich

"People may take a job for more money, but they often leave it for more recognition."

- Bob Nelson

"Treat employees like they make a difference and they will."

- Jim Goodnight

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"We all have goals: We want to matter. We want to be important. We want to have freedom and power to pursue our creative work. We want respect from our peers and recognition for our accomplishments. Not out of vanity or selfishness, but of an earnest desire to fulfill our personal potential."

- Ryan Holiday

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

- Walt Disney

"You don’t build a business – you build people – and then people build your business."

- Zig Ziglar

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

- Peter Drucker

"Developing a culture-first mentality means focusing on employees’ total quality of life—including physical, mental, social, emotional, and financial health."

- Meghan M. Biro

"Feedback is meant to address the problem, not the person."

- Travis Bradberry

"Care personally; don’t put people in boxes and leave them there."

- Kim Scott

"The one behavior that talented people seldom tolerate for long is disrespect."

- Beverly Kaye

"If you’re achieving all your goals, you’re not setting them aggressively enough."

- Laszlo Bock

"You cannot mandate productivity; you must provide the tools to let people become their best."

- Steve Jobs

"The only waste of human resources is letting them go unused."

- Mark Victor Hansen

"In the modern, networked, and symbiotic world we live in, people management is less about squeezing performance from the organized few and more about curating contribution from the limitless many."

- Gyan Nagpal

"The ability to listen is as important as the ability to speak."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"The job of human resources is to make sure that resources come to work with their hearts and go back to their homes with happiness."

- Amit Kalantri

"Done is better than perfect."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"Human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep. You have to go looking for them; they’re not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves."

- Ken Robinson

"Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t have to."

- Richard Branson

"Make new mistakes every day. Don’t waste time repeating the old ones."

- Danny Meyer

"I will always choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."

- Bill Gates

"HR professionals play three roles: storyteller, strategy interpreter, strategic facilitator."

- Dave Ulrich

"Each new employee brings with them a potential to achieve and succeed. To lose the energy of a new hire through poor onboarding is an opportunity lost."

- Sarah Wetzel

"Argue like you’re right, and listen like you’re wrong."

- Adam Grant

"The people that you work with are, when you get down to it, your very best friends."

- Michael Scott

"The most sacred thing I do is care and provide for my workers."

- Michael Scott

"I am about to do something very bold in this job that I’ve never done before. Try."

- Jim Halpert

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant."

- Max DePree

"If you want to know what people are thinking, there is no good replacement for simply asking them, best of all, face to face."

- Patty McCord

"Human Resources isn’t a thing we do. It’s the thing that runs our business."

- Steve Wynn

"You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless they are willing to climb."

- Andrew Carnegie

"When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute."

- Simon Sinek

"When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home."

- Betty Bender

"Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow."

- Anthony Robbins

"The goal of human resource management is to turn raw talent into organizational strength."

- Adele B. Lynn

"To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace."

- Doug Conant

"Recruiting should be viewed as a business partner, someone who is critical to the success of the business."

- Mathew Caldwell

"Organizational culture is not what’s written down. It’s the way things are done."

- Herb Kelleher

"Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed."

- Frances Hesselbein

"Shaping and sustaining your workplace culture is an ongoing process."

- Amy Edmondson

"Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with passion."

- Brian Chesky

"The art of communication is the language of leadership."

- James Humes

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said."

- Peter Drucker

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world."

- Tony Robbins

"Talent management deserves as much focus as financial capital management in corporations."

- Jack Welch

"The war for talent is over, and talent won."

- Josh Bersin

"The most powerful cultures are those that are based on values that are deeply held and widely shared."

- Jim Collins

"Every company has a culture. The only question is whether or not you decide what it is."

- Jason Fried

"A company’s culture is the foundation for future innovation."

- Brian Chesky

"If you believe people are fundamentally good and worthy of trust, you must be honest and transparent with them. That includes telling them when they are lagging behind in their performance. But having a mission-driven, purposeful workplace also requires that you approach people with sensitivity."

- Laszlo Bock

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."

- Ernest Hemingway

"Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success."

- Paul J. Meyer

"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said."

- Peter Drucker

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others."

- Tony Robbins

"To win the marketplace, you must first win the workplace."

- Doug Conant

"True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do, and doing it well."

- Bill Owens

"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously your people will take you."

- John Maxwell

"Communication - the human connection - is the key to personal and career success."

- Paul J. Meyer

"It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."

- Steve Jobs

"Nothing we do is more important than hiring people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not strategies."

- Lawrence Bossidy

"I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people not on strategies."

- Lawrence Bossidy

"The biggest skill we need to learn is how to collaborate with technology. I do not refer to using technology, but rather to the ability to see technology as a value-adding partner in productivity."

- Dr. Dieter Veldsman

"Management is nothing more than motivation other people"

- Lee Lacocca

"Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first."

- Simon Sinek

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Development can help great people be even better - but if I had a dollar to spend, I'd spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door."

- Paul Russell

"Every good conversation starts with listening."

- Tom Haak

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

- Michael Jordan

"Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know."

- Jim Rohn

"Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance."

- Verna Myers

"There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated."

- Richard Branson

"The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office."

- Robert Frost

"Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees."

- Tony Hsieh

"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't being said. The art of reading between the lines is a life long quest of the wise."

- Shannon L. Alder

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."

- Epictetus

"Your ability to communicate is an important tool in the pursuit of your goals, whether it is with your family, your co-workers or your clients and customers."

- Lee Brown

"When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective."

- Stephen Covey

"Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life."

- Brian Tracy

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."

- Phil Jackson

"Communication works for those who work at it."

- John Powell

"Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability."

- Patrick Lencioni

"Diversity: the art of thinking independently together."

- Malcolm Forbes

"Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say."

- Andy Stanley

"You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins."

- Jim Stovall

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed."

- Napoleon Hill

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."

- Booker T. Washington

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

- Oscar Wilde

"Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?"

- Thomas John Watson Sr.

"Being the people’s advocate at times means that you have to be the voice of reason. This means that sometimes you will have to take the unpopular stance, and be the one that asks, “what are the implications if we do or don’t do this?”. HR is about treating people fair so they respect you, not about trying to be “liked”."

- Dr. Dieter Veldsman

"Ultimately, delivering strategy is about hiring the right people and motivating them to deliver results."

- Helen M. & P. Schubert

"Hire character. Train skill."

- Peter Schutz

"The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area."

- Bill Gates

"Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth."

- Jesse Jackson

"We recruit for attitude and train for skill."

- Atul Gawande

"Any idiot can point out a problem... A leader is willing to do something about it! Leaders solve problems!"

- Tony Robbins

"Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after."

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"If you do not intentionally include, you unintentionally exclude."

- Nellie Borrero

"You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life."

- Renee West

"If you’re good to your staff when things are going well, they’ll rally when things go bad."

- Mary Kay Ash

"People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude."

- John C. Maxwell

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself."

- Henry Ford

"In most cases, being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way."

- Tina Fey

"I will always choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."

- Bill Gates

"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, ‘Would an idiot do that?’ And if they would, I do not do that thing."

- Dwight Schrute

"If there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most."

- Dwight Schrute

"People trust what they see over what they hear."

- Travis Bradberry

"Leadership is about giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work."

- Seth Godin

"Don’t hire anyone you wouldn’t want to run into in the hallway at three in the morning."

- Tina Fey

"In order to build a rewarding employee experience, you need to understand what matters most to your people."

- Julie Bevacqua

"If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur."

- Red Adair

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur."

- David Cummings

"You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb."

- Andrew Carnegie

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."

- Elbert Hubbard

"Hire for passion and intensity; there is training for everything."

- Nolan Bushnell

"Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed."

- Aaron Goldman

"Part of company culture is path-dependent – it’s the lessons you learn along the way."

- Jeff Bezos

"Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got."

- Peter Drucker

"Like people, when companies work to foster a culture of collaboration, communication becomes second nature."

- Doug McMillon

"Ultimately, what any company does when it is successful is merely a lagging indicator of its existing culture."

- Satya Nadella

"The company culture is about being human, being good to other people."

- Logan Green

"Every time I see high-trust cultures, I see a lessening of adversarialism."

- Stephen Covey

"Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with a passion."

- Brian Chesky

"Human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep. You have to go looking for them; they're not just lying around on the surface."

- Ken Robinson

"The value of a business is a function of how well the financial capital and intellectual capital are managed by human capital. You'd better get the human capital part right."

- Dave Bookbinder

"Recruitment IS marketing. If you’re a recruiter nowadays and you don’t see yourself as a marketer, you’re in the wrong profession"

- Matthew Jeffrey

"When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home."

- Betty Bender

"Inventories can be managed but people must be led."

- Ross Perot

"High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation."

- Charles F. Kettering

"What chance gathers she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Without the right succession planning put to play in human resources, we build for the future without a future."

- Mmanti Umoh

"Children imitate their parents, employees their managers."

- Amit Kalantri

"C leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing"

- Rollo May

"The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through."

- Sydney J. Harris

"We never listen when we are eager to speak"

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"For effective communication think about how is your speech is perceived than in what you are actually saying."

- Byron Rivers

"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university."

- Albert Einstein

"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it."

- H.E. Luccock

"Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans."

- Meghan M. Biro

"Allow people to be themselves. People want to be GREAT, great companies let them be GREAT."

- Arte Nathan

"True motivation comes from achievement, personal development, job satisfaction, and recognition."

- Frederick Herzberg

"Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do."

- Malcolm Forbes

"Time spent on hiring is time well spent."

- Robert Half

"If you fulfill the wishes of your employees, the employees will fulfill your visions."

- Amit Kalantri

"Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it."

- Henry David Thoreau

"You can’t teach employees to smile. They have to smile before you hire them."

- Arte Nathan

"Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture."

- Howard Schultz

"Dating and hiring have a lot in common."

- Scott Wintrip

"Ensure your documentation is short and sharp and make much more use of people-to-people communication."

- Bentley and Borman

"Be Sincere; be brief, be seated"

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"If you have nothing to say, say nothing"

- Mark Twain

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

- William Shakespeare

"If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play."

- John Cleese

"The wealth of time is the only wealth that is more valuable than human resources"

- Sunday Adelaja

"The hardest challenge being an HR is that sometimes you have to be the LAWYER, the JUDGE, and the HANGMAN."

- Hassan Choughari

"Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it’s not like a compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised."

- Michael Scott

"There’s an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job."

- Peter Drucker

"I knew exactly what to do. but, in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do."

- Michael Scott

"The art of advocacy is to lead you to my conclusion on your terms."

- Adam Grant

"I do deserve a vacation. Sometimes Batman’s gotta take off his cape."

- Kevin Malone

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn’t you say so? There’s a support group for that. It’s called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar."

- Drew Carey

"Your smile is your logo, your personality is your business card, how you leave others feeling after an experience with you becomes your trademark."

- Jay Danzie

"Politeness is the poison of collaboration."

- Edwin Land

"Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way."

- Michael Scott

"Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."

- Michael Scott

"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"

- Edward Bergen

"I am running away from my responsibilities. And it feels good."

- Michael Scott

"An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage."

"Do not underestimate your abilities. That is your boss’s job."

"You’re not just recruiting employees, but are sowing the seeds of your reputation."

"So much is expected of HR professionals — from leadership, employees, and our peers. Sometimes people can inadvertently think we are miracle workers. But we are not."

"Good employees make mistakes and good leaders allow them to"

"A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected."

"What’s it like to be a recruiter? Imagine a browser with 2487 tabs open. All. The. Time."