Motivational Quotes

Leadership

It is the Vague and Elusive. Meet it and you will not see its head. Follow it and you will not see its back.

- Lao-Tzu

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

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

Proverb, French

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

Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.

Peters, Thomas J.

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group.

Ewing, Russell H.

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.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

Walton, Sam

10.

Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation's leaders wouldn't know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return.

Lapham, Lewis H.

11.

He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf; eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. Such a man makes every acre of land in his community worth more, and makes richer every man who lives near him.

Marden, Orison Swett

12.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

13.

Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

Ford, Henry

14.

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself.

Barker, Joel A.

15.

When placed in command -- take charge.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

16.

It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.

Pope John XXIII

17.

A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.

Lauren, Ralph

18.

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.

19.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Roosevelt, Theodore

20.

It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.

Wolfe, Thomas

21.

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

22.

The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer's place.

Marden, Orison Swett

23.

Show me the leader and I will know his men. Show me the men and I will know their leader.

Newcomb, Arthur W.

24.

It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.

Kennedy, John F.

25.

The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.

Lombardi, Vince

26.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

27.

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

Lombardi, Vince

28.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

29.

In really good companies, you have to lead. You have to come up with big ideas and express them forcefully. I have always been encouraged -- or sometimes forced -- to confront the very natural fear of being wrong. I was constantly pushed to find out what I really thought and then to speak up. Over time, I came to see that waiting to discover which way the wind was blowing is an excellent way to learn how to be a follower.

Enrico, Roger

30.

We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.

Lao-Tzu

32.

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

33.

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

34.

If you want to be comfortable -- take an easy job. If you aspire to leadership, take off your coat.

35.

Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices.

Fuller, R. Buckminster

36.

Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing.

Bennis, Warren

37.

Those that rule must hear and be deaf, must see and be blind.

Proverb, German

38.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

39.

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

40.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

41.

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

Townsend, Robert

42.

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

Maxwell, John C.

43.

The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.

Parrish, Amos

44.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

45.

Outstanding leaders appeal to the hearts of their followers -- not their minds.

46.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

Rohn, Jim

47.

Leaders create an environment which everyone has the opportunity to do work which matches his potential capability and for which an equitable differential reward is provided.

Jaques, Elliott

48.

The leader seeks to communicate his vision to his followers. He captures their attention with his optimistic intuition of possible solutions to their needs. He influences them by the dynamism of his faith. He demonstrates confidence that the challenge can be met, the need resolved, the crisis overcome.

Haggai, John

49.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Roosevelt, Theodore

50.

One secret of leadership is that the mind of a leader never turns off. Leaders even when they are sightseers or spectators, are active; not passive observers.

Humes, James