Motivational Quotes

Leadership

When the best leader's work is done the people say, We did it ourselves.

- Lao-Tzu

Best Quotes about Leadership

Education is the mother of leadership.

Willkie, Wendell L.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

Rockefeller, John D.

I'm their leader, I've got to follow them.

Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre

Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice.

George Goethals

The chief executive who knows his strengths and weaknesses as a leader is likely to be far more effective than the one who remains blind to them. He also is on the road to humility -- that priceless attitude of openness to life that can help a manager absorb mistakes, failures, or personal shortcomings.

Adair, John

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

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.

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

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

10.

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

11.

Leaders are readers.

Jones, Charles ''Tremendous''

12.

There is no necessary connection between the desire to lead and the ability to lead, and even less the ability to lead somewhere that will be to the advantage of the led

Evans, Bergen

13.

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

14.

Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.

Lombardi, Vince

15.

A leader knows what's best to do; a manager knows merely how best to do it.

Adelman, Ken

16.

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

Knox, John

17.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

Lee Iacocca

18.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

19.

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

20.

It's important for the explorer to be willing to be led astray.

Oech, Roger Von

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

The best leaders... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.

Peters, Thomas J.

25.

The best leaders of all, the people know not they exist. They turn to each other and say We did it ourselves.

Saying, Zen

26.

Popularity is not leadership.

Marcinko, Richard

27.

If you have fear of those that command you, spare those that obey you.

Azai, Rabbi Ben

28.

The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.

Sheehy, Gail

29.

A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under.

Ervin, Sam

30.

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.

31.

The lead dog gets the best view. The rest of the dogs view is butt ugly. Of course, the lead dog is also the first to fall into the ravine.

Saunders, Richard

32.

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

Depree, Max

33.

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

34.

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

Schorr, James

35.

Eagles don't flock, you have to find them one at a time.

Perot, H. Ross

36.

People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or writer or philosopher --a Roosevelt, a Tolstoy, a Wood, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It's the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.

37.

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.

38.

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

39.

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.

Peter Drucker

40.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

41.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

42.

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.

Landry, Tom

43.

Leadership is a serving relationship that has the effect of facilitating human development.

Ward, Ted

44.

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

45.

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

Patton, George S.

46.

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

47.

If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.

Thatcher, Margaret

48.

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

Confucius

49.

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

Barker, Joel A.

50.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus