Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

- Miller, Henry

Best Quotes about Leadership

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.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.

Stendhal, Henri B.

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.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

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

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

Half, Robert

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

Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre

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.

10.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

11.

Leadership must be established from the top down.

Nunn, Sam

12.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

Hoover, Herbert Clark

17.

A leader has been defined as one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

18.

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

Schorr, James

19.

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

20.

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

21.

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

22.

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.

23.

The crowd gives the leader new strength.

Evenius

24.

The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive.

Batten, Joe

25.

The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says I; The leader says WE. The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, GO; the leader says lets, GO!

Selfridge, H. Gordon

26.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

Augustine, St.

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.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

29.

If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

30.

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women.

Marx, Groucho

31.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

32.

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

33.

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.

34.

Each person must decide for himself what he wants each day. As a leader, I will expose you to the options and the likely consequences of those options. I'll even share my opinion if asked, but I'll never confuse it with the opinion, which simply doesn't exist.

Dyer, Wayne

35.

Six traits of effective leaders: 1. Make others feel important 2. Promote a vision 3. Follow the golden rule 4. Admit mistakes 5. Criticize others only in private 6. Stay close to the action Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

36.

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

37.

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

Saying, Zen

38.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

Selden, John

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Motto

42.

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

43.

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

Patton, George S.

44.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

Diderot, Denis

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

48.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Kissinger, Henry

49.

The wise man who is not heeded is counted a fool, and the fool who proclaims the general folly first and loudest passes for a prophet and F?hrer, and sometimes it is luckily the other way round as well, or else mankind would long since have perished of stupidity.

Jung, Carl

50.

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

Laura Preble