Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

Best Quotes about Leadership

Every leader needs to look back once in a while to make sure he has followers. Source Unknown Effective leaders are known by the questions they ask rather than the statements they make.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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

Hesburgh, Theodore M.

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

George Goethals

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

Naisbitt, John

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Marx, Groucho

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

Depree, Max

10.

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

Bennis, Warren

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Bennis, Warren

14.

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.

15.

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

King George VI

16.

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

17.

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.

Peters, Thomas J.

18.

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

19.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Gandhi, Mahatma

20.

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

Bennis, Warren

21.

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

22.

The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.

Parrish, Amos

23.

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

Laura Preble

24.

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

Miller, Henry

25.

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

26.

If you want to be comfortable -- take an easy job. If you aspire to leadership, take off your coat.

27.

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

Allen, Norman

28.

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

29.

Right or wrong, the customer is always right.

Field, Marshall

30.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

32.

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

33.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

34.

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

Lukas, Wayne

35.

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

36.

The crowd gives the leader new strength.

Evenius

37.

The person who has no enemies has no followers.

Piatt, Don

38.

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

Diderot, Denis

39.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

40.

When a blind man bears the standard, pity those who follow.

Proverb, French

41.

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

42.

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

Adelman, Ken

43.

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

Saying, Zen

44.

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

Patton, George S.

45.

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