Motivational Quotes

Leadership

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

- Bonaparte, Napoleon

Best Quotes about Leadership

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

Knox, John

No affection and a great brain, these are the people to command the world.

Disraeli, Benjamin

An army of deer would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than an army of lions commanded by a stag.

Proverb

The measure of a great leader, is their success in bringing everyone around to their opinion twenty years later.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Right or wrong, the customer is always right.

Field, Marshall

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

Meir, Golda

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

Lukas, Wayne

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

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

10.

A crown, golden in show is but a wreath of thorns.

Milton, John

11.

Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

12.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

13.

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

14.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

15.

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.

16.

When placed in command -- take charge.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

17.

Leadership is a serving relationship that has the effect of facilitating human development.

Ward, Ted

18.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

19.

There is no necessary connection between the desire to lead and the ability to lead, and even less the ability to lead somewhere that will be to the advantage of the led

Evans, Bergen

20.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

21.

Doing what's right isn't the problem. It is knowing what's right.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

Lao-Tzu

25.

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

26.

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

27.

The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.

Anderson, Marian

28.

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

Bennis, Warren

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Schorr, James

33.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

34.

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

35.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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.

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

38.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

39.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Kissinger, Henry

40.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

41.

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.

42.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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!

47.

I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it.

Truman, Harry S

48.

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

49.

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

50.

Tell a person they are brave and you help them become so.

Carlyle, Thomas