Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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

Best Quotes about Leadership

The lead dog gets the best view. The rest of the dogs view is butt ugly. Of course, the lead dog is also the first to fall into the ravine.

Saunders, Richard

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

George Goethals

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

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

Augustine, St.

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

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.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

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

Schwarzkopf, Norman

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Bennis, Warren

14.

I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice De

15.

Public sentiment is everything, with it nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed.

Lincoln, Abraham

16.

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

17.

The crowd gives the leader new strength.

Evenius

18.

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

19.

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

Caine, Mark

20.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

21.

The leader seeks to communicate his vision to his followers. He captures their attention with his optimistic intuition of possible solutions to their needs. He influences them by the dynamism of his faith. He demonstrates confidence that the challenge can be met, the need resolved, the crisis overcome.

Haggai, John

22.

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

Daniel Akst

23.

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

Barker, Joel A.

24.

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.

Humphrey, Hubert H.

25.

Men are lead by trifles.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

26.

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

27.

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

Knox, John

28.

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

29.

You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think.

Parker, Dorothy

30.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

34.

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

Townsend, Robert

35.

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

Milton, John

36.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

Lee Iacocca

37.

Show me the leader and I will know his men. Show me the men and I will know their leader.

Newcomb, Arthur W.

38.

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

39.

If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

40.

That is no use at all. What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.

Melbourne, Lord

41.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

42.

The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.

Lombardi, Vince

43.

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

44.

Ronald Reagan has held the two most demeaning jobs in the country; President of the United States and radio broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs.

Will, George F.

45.

The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.

Sheehy, Gail

46.

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

Hoover, Herbert Clark

47.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

48.

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.

49.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

50.

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.

Peter Drucker