"Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today"
About this Quote
Efficiency, in this line, comes with a sting: the “good executive” isn’t a heroic doer, but a shrewd delegator. Maxwell flips the familiar virtue of personal productivity (“don’t put off until tomorrow…”) into a managerial proverb that prizes leverage over sweat. It works because it’s funny in a slightly uncomfortable way. The punchline is that the antidote to procrastination isn’t discipline; it’s hierarchy.
The specific intent is to legitimize delegation as a core executive skill, not an abdication. “Good” is doing a lot of moral work here: it frames passing tasks down the chain as responsible leadership, the kind that protects a leader’s time for decisions, vision, and relationships. The subtext, though, is more complicated. “Someone else” is deliberately vague, a placeholder that glosses over power dynamics, labor realities, and the possibility that the task is being offloaded precisely because it’s tedious, risky, or thankless. The quip invites a certain corporate realism: organizations run on asymmetry, and executives are paid, in part, to redistribute effort.
Maxwell’s background as a clergyman-turned-leadership guru helps explain the tone. He often translates moral clarity into workplace counsel, turning character language into strategy language. Here, the counsel lands in the modern productivity culture that treats time as a sacred commodity and delegation as stewardship. The line’s cynicism is the point: it flatters managers who want permission to stop doing and start directing, while quietly revealing how “effectiveness” can mean getting results without getting your hands dirty.
The specific intent is to legitimize delegation as a core executive skill, not an abdication. “Good” is doing a lot of moral work here: it frames passing tasks down the chain as responsible leadership, the kind that protects a leader’s time for decisions, vision, and relationships. The subtext, though, is more complicated. “Someone else” is deliberately vague, a placeholder that glosses over power dynamics, labor realities, and the possibility that the task is being offloaded precisely because it’s tedious, risky, or thankless. The quip invites a certain corporate realism: organizations run on asymmetry, and executives are paid, in part, to redistribute effort.
Maxwell’s background as a clergyman-turned-leadership guru helps explain the tone. He often translates moral clarity into workplace counsel, turning character language into strategy language. Here, the counsel lands in the modern productivity culture that treats time as a sacred commodity and delegation as stewardship. The line’s cynicism is the point: it flatters managers who want permission to stop doing and start directing, while quietly revealing how “effectiveness” can mean getting results without getting your hands dirty.
Quote Details
| Topic | Management |
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