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

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

Maxwell, John C.

To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn't know where he is going.

Namath, Joe

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

Lindner, Robert

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

Hennessy, Edward

Skill in the art of communication is crucial to a leader's success. He can accomplish nothing unless he can communicate effectively.

Allen, Norman

Leadership is like the old galley ships. 100s are rowing, but only one (the captain) knows where they are going

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.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

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.

10.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

11.

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

King George VI

12.

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

Fuller, R. Buckminster

13.

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

14.

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

15.

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

Iacocca, Lee

16.

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

17.

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.

18.

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

19.

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.

20.

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

Lukas, Wayne

21.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

22.

The penalty of leadership is loneliness.

Robinson, H. Wheeler

23.

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

Saying, Zen

24.

Leadership has to do with direction. Management has to do with the speed, coordination and logistics in going in that direction. The WORKERS are chopping their way through the jungle. The MANAGERS are coordinating, making sure the tools are sharp, etc. The LEADERS climb a tree and shout Wrong jungle!! The MANAGERS shout back Be quiet! We're making progress!

25.

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

Schorr, James

26.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Disraeli, Benjamin

27.

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

28.

Popularity is not leadership.

Marcinko, Richard

29.

The wealth of kings is in the affections of their subjects.

Motto

30.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

31.

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

Townsend, Robert

32.

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

33.

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

Lao-Tzu

34.

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

Newcomb, Arthur W.

35.

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

36.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Patton, George S.

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

40.

The person who has no enemies has no followers.

Piatt, Don

41.

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.

42.

I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

43.

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.

44.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

45.

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

Miller, Henry

46.

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

47.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu

48.

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

49.

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

Townsend, Robert

50.

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

Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre