Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

I'm their leader, I've got to follow them.

Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre

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

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

Iacocca, Lee

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

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.

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.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

The crowd gives the leader new strength.

Evenius

10.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

11.

When we think we lead we are most led.

Byron, Lord

12.

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

13.

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.

14.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

15.

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

Stendhal, Henri B.

16.

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

Motto

17.

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

Machiavelli, Niccolo

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

Patton, George S.

25.

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

Kissinger, Henry

26.

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

Maurois, Andre

27.

A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.

Lauren, Ralph

28.

Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

Lombardi, Vince

29.

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.

30.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

31.

The wise man who is not heeded is counted a fool, and the fool who proclaims the general folly first and loudest passes for a prophet and F?hrer, and sometimes it is luckily the other way round as well, or else mankind would long since have perished of stupidity.

Jung, Carl

32.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

33.

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

Diogenes of Sinope

34.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

35.

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

Proverb, German

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws are new.

Aeschylus

39.

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

40.

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

Bennis, Warren

41.

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

Wanamaker, John

42.

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

43.

Leadership is action, not position.

Mcgannon, Donald H.

44.

True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.

Townsend, Robert

45.

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

Walters, J. Donald

46.

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself.

Barker, Joel A.

47.

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

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.

It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.

Pope John XXIII

50.

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