Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

Best Quotes about Leadership

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.

Humphrey, Hubert H.

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.

There is great force hidden in a gentle command.

Herbert, George

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

Schorr, James

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

We will make them think it's their idea. That's how all great leaders fool people.

Laura Preble

The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Bennis, Warren

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

Hesburgh, Theodore M.

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

10.

The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

Orwell, George

11.

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

George Goethals

12.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

13.

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

Bennis, Warren

14.

Leadership must be established from the top down.

Nunn, Sam

15.

Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

16.

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.

17.

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

Proverb

18.

Public sentiment is everything, with it nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed.

Lincoln, Abraham

19.

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

Bennis, Warren

20.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

21.

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

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

Patton, George S.

25.

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.

26.

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

27.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

28.

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

Bennis, Warren

29.

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.

30.

Popularity is not leadership.

Marcinko, Richard

31.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

32.

Some men must follow, and some command, though all are made of clay.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

33.

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.

Geneen, Harold S.

34.

I don't think that a leader can control to any great extent his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

Nixon, Richard M.

35.

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

36.

The penalty of leadership is loneliness.

Robinson, H. Wheeler

37.

The person who renders loyal service in a humble capacity will be chosen for higher responsibilities, just as the biblical servant who multiplied the one pound given him by his master was made ruler over ten cities...

Forbes, B. C.

38.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

39.

True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.

Townsend, Robert

40.

No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

41.

In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

42.

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

43.

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

Wanamaker, John

44.

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

45.

Self-regulation will always be a challenge, but if somebody's going to be in charge, it might as well be me.

Daniel Akst

46.

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

Iacocca, Lee

47.

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

48.

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.

49.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu

50.

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