Motivational Quotes

Leadership

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.

- Lao-Tzu

Best Quotes about Leadership

The successful man doesn't use others, other people use the successful man, for above all the success is of service.

Caine, Mark

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

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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.

Lao-Tzu

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

Peters, Thomas J.

Impatience is the cause of most of our irregularities and extravagances Command by obeying.

Motto

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

Daniel Akst

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

Kissinger, Henry

10.

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

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

11.

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

Ward, Ted

12.

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

Wanamaker, John

13.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

14.

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

Diogenes of Sinope

15.

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

Adelman, Ken

16.

We will make them think it's their idea. That's how all great leaders fool people.

Laura Preble

17.

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.

18.

If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.

Thatcher, Margaret

19.

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

Diderot, Denis

20.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

21.

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

22.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Disraeli, Benjamin

23.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

24.

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

Ovid

25.

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

Saying, Zen

26.

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

27.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

28.

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

29.

Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

30.

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

31.

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

Ervin, Sam

32.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

33.

Every leader needs to look back once in a while to make sure he has followers. Source Unknown Effective leaders are known by the questions they ask rather than the statements they make.

34.

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

35.

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.

36.

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

Maxwell, John C.

37.

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.

38.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

39.

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

Churchill, Winston

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Milton, John

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.

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

Newcomb, Arthur W.

45.

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

Lao-Tzu

46.

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

47.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

Selden, John

48.

People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or writer or philosopher --a Roosevelt, a Tolstoy, a Wood, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It's the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.

49.

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

50.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu