Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

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.

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

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

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

Peters, Thomas J.

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

Half, Robert

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

Ovid

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

Daniel Akst

It's important for the explorer to be willing to be led astray.

Oech, Roger Von

10.

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got. Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.

Bird, Larry

11.

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.

12.

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

Hennessy, Edward

13.

Some men must follow, and some command, though all are made of clay.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

14.

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

Stendhal, Henri B.

15.

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

16.

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

Churchill, Winston

17.

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

Bennis, Warren

18.

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

Patton, George S.

19.

The wealth of kings is in the affections of their subjects.

Motto

20.

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

Hesburgh, Theodore M.

21.

Education is the mother of leadership.

Willkie, Wendell L.

22.

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

23.

When a blind man bears the standard, pity those who follow.

Proverb, French

24.

I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.

Iacocca, Lee

25.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

26.

Liu Shao-Ch'I

27.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

28.

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

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

29.

Do your best to be the lead dog otherwise the view never changes.

30.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Gandhi, Mahatma

31.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

32.

The real leader has no need to lead -- he is content to point the way.

Miller, Henry

33.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Roosevelt, Theodore

34.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Marden, Orison Swett

38.

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

Caine, Mark

39.

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

Adelman, Ken

40.

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

41.

The well being of the people is the supreme law.

42.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

43.

When the leadership is right and the time is right, the people can always be counted upon to follow -- to the end at all costs.

Seymour, Harold J.

44.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

45.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca

46.

Right or wrong, the customer is always right.

Field, Marshall

47.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

48.

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

49.

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

50.

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