Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

Adelman, Ken

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

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

Fuller, R. Buckminster

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Kissinger, Henry

It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.

Kennedy, John F.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

Selden, John

Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.

Packard, Vance

Leadership must be established from the top down.

Nunn, Sam

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

10.

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.

Geneen, Harold S.

11.

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

12.

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

Wanamaker, John

13.

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

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

14.

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

15.

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

Bennis, Warren

16.

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

Lao-Tzu

17.

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

18.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

19.

The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer's place.

Marden, Orison Swett

20.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

21.

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

Diogenes of Sinope

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.

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

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.

A prince should be slow to punish, and quick to reward.

Ovid

26.

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

27.

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

Confucius

28.

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

Proverb, German

29.

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

Batten, Joe

30.

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

31.

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

32.

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

Townsend, Robert

33.

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

Knox, John

34.

The penalty of leadership is loneliness.

Robinson, H. Wheeler

35.

'Tis a dainty thing to command, though 'twere but a flock of sheep.

Cervantes, Miguel De

36.

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

Ervin, Sam

37.

Leadership is the activity of influencing people to cooperate towards some goal which they come to find desirable and which motivates them over the long haul.

Tead, Orway

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Bennis, Warren

41.

Every private in the French army carries a Field Marshall wand in his knapsack.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

42.

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

Maxwell, John C.

43.

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.

44.

That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.

Melbourne, Lord

45.

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

46.

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Meir, Golda

47.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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