Motivational Quotes

Leadership

It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.

- Wolfe, Thomas

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

One secret of leadership is that the mind of a leader never turns off. Leaders even when they are sightseers or spectators, are active; not passive observers.

Humes, James

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

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

Newcomb, Arthur W.

Perhaps in His wisdom the Almighty is trying to show us that a leader may chart the way, may point out the road to lasting peace, but that many leaders and many peoples must do the building.

Roosevelt, Eleanor

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

Leadership must be established from the top down.

Nunn, Sam

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

10.

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

11.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Kissinger, Henry

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.

Morale is faith in the man at the top.

Johnston, Albert Sidney

14.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

Selden, John

15.

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

16.

Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.

Walters, J. Donald

17.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, We did it ourselves.

Lao-Tzu

18.

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

19.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

20.

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

21.

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

Wanamaker, John

22.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu

23.

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

Lukas, Wayne

24.

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

25.

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

Stendhal, Henri B.

26.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

27.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

28.

No man has ever risen to the real stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to serve himself.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

29.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

30.

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.

31.

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

32.

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

Schorr, James

33.

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

Townsend, Robert

34.

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

Parker, Dorothy

35.

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

36.

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

37.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

Lee Iacocca

38.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.

Maurois, Andre

39.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

Kissinger, Henry

40.

Popularity is not leadership.

Marcinko, Richard

41.

Men are lead by trifles.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

42.

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.

43.

Those that rule must hear and be deaf, must see and be blind.

Proverb, German

44.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Marx, Groucho

48.

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.

Churchill, Winston

49.

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.

50.

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