Motivational Quotes

Leadership

The right man comes at the right time.

- Proverb, Italian

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

Batten, Joe

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

Knox, John

We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

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

Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices.

Fuller, R. Buckminster

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.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

Right or wrong, the customer is always right.

Field, Marshall

10.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

11.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

12.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

13.

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.

14.

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

Milton, John

15.

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.

16.

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

17.

Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing.

Bennis, Warren

18.

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

19.

Who has not served cannot command.

Florio, John

20.

No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

21.

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

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

Proverb, German

25.

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.

26.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

27.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

28.

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

29.

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

Wanamaker, John

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

Motto

33.

The right man comes at the right time.

Proverb, Italian

34.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

35.

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

Ford, Henry

36.

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

Adelman, Ken

37.

There is great force hidden in a gentle command.

Herbert, George

38.

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

39.

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

Daniel Akst

40.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

44.

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

Schorr, James

45.

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

46.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

47.

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

Stendhal, Henri B.

48.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

49.

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

50.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius