Motivational Quotes

Leadership

An order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

- Bonaparte, Napoleon

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

Barker, Joel A.

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

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

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

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.

The person who has no enemies has no followers.

Piatt, Don

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Kissinger, Henry

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

Newcomb, Arthur W.

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

Batten, Joe

10.

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

Fuller, R. Buckminster

11.

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

Confucius

12.

Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example.

Hennessy, Edward

13.

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

14.

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

15.

Education is the mother of leadership.

Willkie, Wendell L.

16.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

17.

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

18.

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

Milton, John

19.

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

Johnson, Lyndon B.

20.

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

Depree, Max

21.

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

Naisbitt, John

22.

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

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

23.

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.

24.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

25.

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

26.

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

Peters, Thomas J.

27.

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

Lao-Tzu

28.

The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.

Anderson, Marian

29.

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

Melbourne, Lord

30.

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

31.

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

Bennis, Warren

32.

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

33.

Morale is faith in the man at the top.

Johnston, Albert Sidney

34.

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

Kissinger, Henry

35.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Disraeli, Benjamin

36.

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

37.

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

38.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

39.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

Selden, John

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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.

43.

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

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

44.

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.

Landry, Tom

45.

The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.

Lukas, Wayne

46.

A prince should be slow to punish, and quick to reward.