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

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

Schorr, James

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

When placed in command -- take charge.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.

Naisbitt, John

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Peters, Thomas J.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

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

Fuller, R. Buckminster

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

Proverb

10.

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

Lippmann, Walter

11.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

12.

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

13.

Efficiency tends to deal with Things. Effectiveness tends to deal with People. We manage things, we lead people

14.

No affection and a great brain, these are the people to command the world.

Disraeli, Benjamin

15.

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

Ervin, Sam

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

Impatience is the cause of most of our irregularities and extravagances Command by obeying.

Motto

19.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

Diogenes of Sinope

20.

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.

21.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

22.

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.

23.

The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.

Lukas, Wayne

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

27.

When the leadership is right and the time is right, the people can always be counted upon to follow -- to the end at all costs.

Seymour, Harold J.

28.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

29.

Do your best to be the lead dog otherwise the view never changes.

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Peter Drucker

33.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

34.

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

Hennessy, Edward

35.

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

Townsend, Robert

36.

The real leader has no need to lead -- he is content to point the way.

Miller, Henry

37.

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

Parker, Dorothy

38.

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

39.

Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.

Rohn, Jim

40.

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

41.

A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

42.

Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.