Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

- Tutu, Bishop Desmond

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

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

Proverb, German

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

Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation's leaders wouldn't know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return.

Lapham, Lewis H.

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

Wanamaker, John

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

Selden, John

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

Hesburgh, Theodore M.

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.

Syrus, Publilius

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

10.

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

Schorr, James

11.

A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart.

Townsend, Robert

12.

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

Saying, Zen

13.

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

14.

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead -- and find no one there.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

15.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

16.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

Rockefeller, John D.

17.

It is a characteristic of all movements and crusades that the psychopathic element rises to the top.

Lindner, Robert

18.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

19.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

20.

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

21.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

22.

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.

23.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

24.

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

25.

I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it.

Truman, Harry S

26.

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

27.

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

Marx, Groucho

28.

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

29.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

30.

The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.

Parrish, Amos

31.

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

Lao-Tzu

32.

To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn't know where he is going.

Namath, Joe

33.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

34.

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

Naisbitt, John

35.

Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice.

George Goethals

36.

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

37.

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

Miller, Henry

38.

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

39.

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

Patton, George S.

40.

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

Kissinger, Henry

41.

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

Confucius

42.

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

Motto

43.

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

Stendhal, Henri B.

44.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Kissinger, Henry

45.

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

46.

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

47.

Leadership is action, not position.

Mcgannon, Donald H.

48.

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

49.

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.

50.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu