Motivational Quotes

Leadership

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

- Kissinger, Henry

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

Walters, J. Donald

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

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

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

Parker, Dorothy

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

Melbourne, Lord

It is the Vague and Elusive. Meet it and you will not see its head. Follow it and you will not see its back.

Lao-Tzu

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

Diogenes of Sinope

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!

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

10.

Leaders create an environment which everyone has the opportunity to do work which matches his potential capability and for which an equitable differential reward is provided.

Jaques, Elliott

11.

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

Bennis, Warren

12.

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

13.

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

Maurois, Andre

14.

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

15.

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

Marx, Groucho

16.

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

17.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

18.

Self-regulation will always be a challenge, but if somebody's going to be in charge, it might as well be me.

Daniel Akst

19.

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

Machiavelli, Niccolo

20.

Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

Ford, Henry

21.

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

Ervin, Sam

22.

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

23.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

24.

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

25.

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

Maxwell, John C.

26.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

27.

Men are lead by trifles.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

28.

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

Naisbitt, John

29.

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

Adelman, Ken

30.

In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

31.

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

Saying, Zen

32.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

33.

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

34.

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

Diderot, Denis

35.

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

Schorr, James

36.

Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example.

Hennessy, Edward

37.

Eagles don't flock, you have to find them one at a time.

Perot, H. Ross

38.

Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.

Rohn, Jim

39.

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

Wanamaker, John

40.

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

Stendhal, Henri B.

41.

The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says I; The leader says WE. The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, GO; the leader says lets, GO!

Selfridge, H. Gordon

42.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

43.

I don't think that a leader can control to any great extent his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

Nixon, Richard M.

44.

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

Confucius

45.

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

Churchill, Winston

46.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

47.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

48.

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

Hesburgh, Theodore M.

49.

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

50.

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