Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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.

Best Quotes about Leadership

The person who renders loyal service in a humble capacity will be chosen for higher responsibilities, just as the biblical servant who multiplied the one pound given him by his master was made ruler over ten cities...

Forbes, B. C.

The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says I; The leader says WE. The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, GO; the leader says lets, GO!

Selfridge, H. Gordon

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

Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre

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

Marx, Groucho

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.

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

Lao-Tzu

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

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

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

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

10.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

14.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

15.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

16.

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

Adelman, Ken

17.

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

18.

Leaders don't inflict pain -- they share pain.

Depree, Max

19.

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

20.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

21.

Outstanding leaders appeal to the hearts of their followers -- not their minds.

22.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

23.

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

24.

Education is the mother of leadership.

Willkie, Wendell L.

25.

A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

26.

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

27.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

Lee Iacocca

28.

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

29.

Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.

Packard, Vance

30.

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

Naisbitt, John

31.

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

32.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

33.

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

Laura Preble

34.

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

35.

Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people --that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

Drucker, Peter F.

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

40.

The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears, and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

Orwell, George

41.

Men are lead by trifles.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

42.

In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

43.

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

44.

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.

45.

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

Caine, Mark

46.

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

47.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Townsend, Robert