Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

- Kissinger, Henry

Best Quotes about Leadership

The lead dog gets the best view. The rest of the dogs view is butt ugly. Of course, the lead dog is also the first to fall into the ravine.

Saunders, Richard

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

Batten, Joe

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.

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

Milton, John

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

Adelman, Ken

Certainly a leader needs a clear vision of the organization and where it is going, but a vision is of little value unless it is shared in a way so as to generate enthusiasm and commitment. Leadership and communication are inseparable.

Taylor, Claude

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

The best leaders... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.

Peters, Thomas J.

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

Newcomb, Arthur W.

10.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

Rockefeller, John D.

11.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

Patton, George S.

12.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head -- that's assault, not leadership.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

13.

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

Machiavelli, Niccolo

14.

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

Diderot, Denis

15.

Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.

Lombardi, Vince

16.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

17.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu

18.

It is a great pity when the one who should be the head figure is a mere figure head.

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

19.

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

Knox, John

20.

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.

21.

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

Townsend, Robert

22.

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

Bennis, Warren

23.

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

24.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

25.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

26.

Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.

Rohn, Jim

27.

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!

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.

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

Walters, J. Donald

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.

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

Naisbitt, John

32.

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

George Goethals

33.

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

Proverb, German

34.

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

35.

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

36.

The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.

Sheehy, Gail

37.

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

Diogenes of Sinope

38.

Leadership is like the old galley ships. 100s are rowing, but only one (the captain) knows where they are going

39.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

40.

I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar.

Churchill, Winston

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

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.

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

47.

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

Half, Robert

48.

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

49.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon