Motivational Quotes

Leadership

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

- Augustine, St.

Best Quotes about Leadership

Leadership is not a position. You are not a leader because you have the title of manager. Leadership is something that we earn from followers on a day to day basis.

The EMS Manager Newsletter

It is a great pity when the one who should be the head figure is a mere figure head.

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant.

Liu Shao-Ch'I

An army of deer would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than an army of lions commanded by a stag.

Proverb

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.

Lao-Tzu

'Tis a dainty thing to command, though 'twere but a flock of sheep.

Cervantes, Miguel De

Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.

Ward, William A.

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.

Stendhal, Henri B.

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead -- and find no one there.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

10.

Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.

Bennis, Warren

11.

Ronald Reagan has held the two most demeaning jobs in the country; President of the United States and radio broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs.

Will, George F.

12.

Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people --that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Drucker, Peter F.

13.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head -- that's assault, not leadership.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

14.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, We did it ourselves.

Lao-Tzu

15.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

16.

If you lead the people with correctness, who will dare not be correct?

Confucius

17.

A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart.

Townsend, Robert

18.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

19.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

20.

I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it.

Truman, Harry S

21.

Six traits of effective leaders: 1. Make others feel important 2. Promote a vision 3. Follow the golden rule 4. Admit mistakes 5. Criticize others only in private 6. Stay close to the action Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

22.

When a blind man bears the standard, pity those who follow.

Proverb, French

23.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Gandhi, Mahatma

24.

Leaders don't inflict pain -- they share pain.

Depree, Max

25.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

Peters, Thomas J.

26.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

27.

Doing what's right isn't the problem. It is knowing what's right.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

28.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

Diderot, Denis

29.

Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.

Rohn, Jim

30.

The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.

Anderson, Marian

31.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

Patton, George S.

32.

When a customer enters my store, forget me. He is king.

Wanamaker, John

33.

Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example.

Hennessy, Edward

34.

A leader has been defined as one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

35.

It is a characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.

Lindner, Robert

36.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

37.

Great leaders understand human behavior rather than the cybernetics of any function.

Schorr, James

38.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

39.

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

Bennis, Warren

40.

The penalty of leadership is loneliness.

Robinson, H. Wheeler

41.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

42.

The world of the 90s and beyond will belong to managers or those who make the numbers dance, as we used to say, or those who are conversant with all the business jargon we used to sound smart. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders -- people who not only have an enormous amount of energy but who can energize those whom they lead.

Welch, John

43.

Leadership is the other side of the coin of loneliness, and he who is a leader must always act alone. And acting alone, accept everything alone.

Marcos, Ferdinand E.

44.

Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

45.

There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.

Brecht, Bertolt

46.

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.

Rohn, Jim

47.

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.

Updike, John

48.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

49.

I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

Iacocca, Lee

50.

You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think.

Parker, Dorothy