Motivational Quotes

Leadership

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.

Best Quotes about Leadership

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

Tutu, Bishop Desmond

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

Miller, Henry

'Tis a dainty thing to command, though 'twere but a flock of sheep.

Cervantes, Miguel De

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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

Depree, Max

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

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

Proverb, German

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.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

10.

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

11.

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

Caine, Mark

12.

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

13.

Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.

Bennis, Warren

14.

Keep cool and you will command everyone.

Justinian

15.

A leader has been defined as one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf; eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. Such a man makes every acre of land in his community worth more, and makes richer every man who lives near him.

Marden, Orison Swett

20.

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

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

21.

The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer's place.

Marden, Orison Swett

22.

Leadership is the other side of the coin of loneliness, and he who is a leader must always act alone. And acting alone, accept everything alone.

Marcos, Ferdinand E.

23.

To lead people walk behind them.

Lao-Tzu

24.

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

Adelman, Ken

25.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.

Lao-Tzu

26.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

27.

There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.

Brecht, Bertolt

28.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.

Maurois, Andre

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Patton, George S.

33.

I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar.

Churchill, Winston

34.

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt, William

35.

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.

36.

Popularity is not leadership.

Marcinko, Richard

37.

It is the Vague and Elusive. Meet it and you will not see its head. Follow it and you will not see its back.

Lao-Tzu

38.

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

Daniel Akst

39.

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

40.

The person who has no enemies has no followers.

Piatt, Don

41.

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

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

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.

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

Batten, Joe

44.

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

45.

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

Peter Drucker

46.

Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.

Rohn, Jim

47.

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

Kissinger, Henry

48.

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.

49.

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

50.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Seneca