Cool Quotes on Leadership - More Cool Quotes

Great quotes on leadership can provide personal inspiration and can be used to help motivate, educate and elevate others to new levels of success. Even the most polished leaders can use some inspiration from time to time. Take a minute out of your busy day to enjoy these words of wisdom from some of the greatest leaders known:

No general can fight his battles alone. He must depend upon his lieutenants, and his success depends upon his ability to select the right man for the right place. -Philip Armour
You manage things; you lead people. —Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. – Theodore M. Hesburgh

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. — Stephen R. Covey
Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership. —Donald Rumsfeld
Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths. —John Zenger
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. —John Maxwell
No man can stand on top because he is put there. -H. H. Vreeland
Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? – – William J. Bennett
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. ~ George S. Patton
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. —Publilius Syrus
True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. —Bill Owens
People will not follow you if they do not trust you, and before someone will lend you a hand, you must first touch their heart. -Robin Sharma
A highly credible leader under-promises and over-delivers. -John Maxwell
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. —Stephen Covey
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. -Jim Rohn
A leader is a dealer in hope. —Napoleon Bonaparte
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams
There is always room for a man of force and he makes room for many. Society is a troop of thinkers and the best heads among them take the best places. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
A leader is someone who believes in you and gets you to believe in yourself.
The best leaders are humble enough to realize their victories depend upon their people. -John Maxwell
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. —General Montgomery
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. – Bill Gates
We live in a society obsessed with public opinion. But leadership has never been about popularity. —Marco Rubio
Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too. -Robert Half
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. —John Kenneth Galbraith
To add value to others, one must first value others. – John Maxwell
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George Patton
The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. —Eric Hoffer
To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —Andre Malraux
The question Who ought to be boss is like as Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet? Obviously, the man who can sing tenor. –Henry Ford
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. —Maya Angelou
Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. —General Colin Powell
Many people would rather you heard their story than granted their request.
Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. —Bill Bradley
You don’t need a title to be a leader. –Multiple Attributions
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. -Andrew Jackson
What you do has far greater impact than what you say. —Stephen Covey
Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. – Sam Walton
Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing. — Albert Schweitzer
The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground. —Sir Winston Churchill
A boss says, Go! A leader says, Let’s go! — E.M. Kelly
A bold onset is half the battle. -Giuseppe Garibaldi
If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled ‘subordinates,’ then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny. — Dee Hock
To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. —Friedrich Nietzsche
Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self-reliance, faith, honesty and industry. Don’t take too much advice — keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination with the right motive, are the levers that move the world. -Noah Porter
The world of the 1990s and beyond will not belong to ‘managers’ or those who can make the numbers dance. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders – people who not only have enormous amounts of energy but who can energize those whom they lead. Jack Welch
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. — Ralph Nader
A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not. -Author Unknown
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. —Norman Schwarzkopf
The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. -Theodore Roosevelt
The people follow the example of those above them. -Chinese Proverb
What’s troubling is the gap between our challenges and the smallness of our politics — the ease with which we are distracted by petty and the trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our seeming inability to build a working consensus to tackle any big problem. Barack Obama
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. —Max DePree
When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out. —Napoleon Bonaparte
To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone. — Harry Truman
Most people who want to get ahead do it backward. They think, ‘I’ll get a bigger job, then I’ll learn how to be a leader.’ But showing leadership skill is how you get the bigger job in the first place. -John Maxwell
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. —Reverend Theodore Hesburgh
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. —Herbert Swope
Great leaders are teachers not tyrants. They help their followers see and understand more. The inspire them to become more and motivate them to do more.
It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself. (Absurdum est ut alios regat, qui seipsum regere nescit.) -Latin Proverb
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Harold R. McAlindon
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. —John C. Maxwell
What chance gathers she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. -George S. Patton
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry on. —Walter Lippman
Credibility is a leader’s currency. With it, he or she is solvent; without it, he or she is bankrupt. -John Maxwell
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. —Peter Drucker
Great leaders are lifetime learners. They turn every success, setback and failure into a lesson that will guide them in the future.
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. —Tom Peters
I’ve never found an important decision made by a great organization that was made at a point of unanimity. Significant decisions carry risks and inevitably some will oppose it. In these settings, the great legislative leader must be artful in handling uncomfortable decisions, and this requires rigor. -Jim Collins
I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn’t. —Dee Dee Myers
My responsibility is getting all my players playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back. –Unknown
Those who let things happen usually lose to those who make things happen. – Dave Weinbaum
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. —Bill Gates
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. —Douglas MacArthur
Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. —Brian Tracy
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself. —Latin Proverb
In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” — Harry Truman
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge — fitter to bruise than polish. — Anne Bradstreet, (1612-1672)
I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be. —Warren Bennis
In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. – Theodore Roosevelt
A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis
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. —Jim Rohn
The real leader has no need to lead–he is content to point the way. -Henry Miller
There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage. —Fuchan Yuan
Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. — General George Patton
The supreme quality of leadership is integrity. –Dwight Eisenhower
Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow. —Chinese Proverb
If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. —Benjamin Franklin
The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. —Tony Blair
If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them.
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. — Harvey S. Firestone
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. – Thomas Jefferson
You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership. –Dwight Eisenhower
A leader is anyone who uses authority, reason, fear, inspiration, charisma or personal example to influence the behavior or beliefs of others. Effective leaders formulate their objectives and influence others to achieve them. Principled leaders adhere to moral and ethical principles in forming their objectives as well as their use of the methods of influence. Michael Josephson
Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. —Rosalynn Carter
He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Great leaders are principled; they are not merely effective, they are ethical. They adhere to moral principles in forming their objectives and using the methods of influence. They engender trust and credibility because of their integrity and loyalty and because they care about their followers and treat them with respect.
Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. —Woodrow Wilson
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. — George Orwell
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy. — Dave Barry
The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. — Lord Thomas Macaulay
There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple, and useful life. — Booker T. Washington
To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way. —Pat Riley
Education is the mother of leadership. —Wendell Willkie
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. — Jack Welch
A real leader has the ability to motivate others to their highest level of achievement; then gives them the opportunity and the freedom to grow. -Buck Rodgers
Be known for pleasing others, espcecially if you govern them…Ruling others has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else. -Baltasar Gracián
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. -Peter Drucker
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it. —Andrew Carnegie
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Great leaders derive no pleasure from asserting their power and they use their authority sparingly. They rely more on inspiration and persuasion than coercion, but they are not hesitant to use their power when necessary to assure that everyone is doing what needs to be done.
Leadership is action, not position. — Donald H. McGannon
Let him who would be moved to convince others, be first moved to convince himself. -Thomas Carlyle
Great leadership is about human experiences. It’s not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine. — Lance Secretan
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. —John F. Kennedy
Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all. ~ Dwight Eisenhower
A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. —John Maxwell
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. —Douglas MacArthur
Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself. — Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM
You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. —Ken Kesey
Leadership is defined by results not attributes. -Peter Drucker
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in others the conviction and will to carry on.” – Walter Lippman
Misfortunes, untoward events, lay open, disclose the skill of a general, while success conceals his weakness, his weak points. -Horace
In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer. -Henry W. Longfellow
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt
Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. —Brian Tracy
Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. —Harry S. Truman
The power is detested, and miserable the life, of him who wishes to be feared rather than to be loved. -Cornelius Nepos
To be a great leader and so always master of the situation, one must of necessity have been a great thinker in action. An eagle was never yet hatched from a goose’s egg. -James Thomas
The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision. —Ken Blanchard
A bold beginning is half the battle. Giuseppe Garibaldi
The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. Warren Bennis
Earn your leadership every day. –Michael Jordan
A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see. – Leroy Eimes
I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? —Benjamin Disraeli
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. —Nelson Mandela
Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line. -Warren Bennis
To lead people, walk behind them. – Lao Tzu
A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. —Max Lucado
One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. —Arnold Glasow
What you cannot enforce / Do not command. -Sophocles
Never give an order that can’t be obeyed. —General Douglas MacArthur
Leadership comes from integrity. You must do whatever you ask others to do. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets blaring, activity. — Scott Berkun
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. —Vince Lombardi
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. – Yogi Berra
A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops. —John J Pershing
Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day. —Jesse Jackson
Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead. — Ross Perot
Great leaders have an unusual bone structure. They have strong back bones and well-developed wish bones and funny bones.
Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small. -Edmund Spenser
Great leaders don’t repress or replace the values of their followers; they respect them and they enhance and energize those values focusing them toward the leader’s vision.
As a leader, you’re probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you’re not around. — Patrick Lencioni
Leaders conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts. — John Gardner
Where there is no vision, the people perish. —Proverbs 29:18
Great communication depends on two simple skills—context, which attunes a leader to the same frequency as his or her audience, and delivery, which allows a leader to phrase messages in a language the audience can understand. -John Maxwell
Great leaders are both idealistic and realistic. They have great goals. They seek to close the gap between what is and what can be but they have no illusions that success is either certain or simple. They consider the past and evaluate the present so they can create the future.
I think that the best training a top manager can be engaged in is management by example. I want to make sure there is no discrepancy between what we say and what we do. If you preach accountability and then promote somebody with bad results, it doesn’t work. — Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan
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
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. —Abraham Lincoln
I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. —Ralph Nader
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. —Peter Drucker
There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them. — Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. —John Maxwell
A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done. -Ralph Nader
A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible. —Polybius
Vision comes alive when everyone sees where his or her contribution makes a difference. J-ohn Maxwell
A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him. -General Douglas MacArthur
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. –George Patton
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. -Jack Welch
No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings. – Peter Drucker
A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear. – Herb Kelleher
The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. —Warren Bennis
The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes. -Tony Blair
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. – Henry Adams
One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others. -General Colin Powell
Men are governed only by serving them; the rule is without exception. -V. Cousin
Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts. —Erskine Bowles
A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. — John C. Maxwell
Not everyone agrees that leadership can be taught but all know that leadership can be learned. -Michael Josephson
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. – Harvey S. Firestone
A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward. —Ovid
It’s possible to get people to do what you want through force or fear but that’s not leadership. Michael Josephson
Whatever you are, be a good one. —Abraham Lincoln
Great leaders earn, exude and instill confidence without being arrogant. They also empower their followers with confidence and pride.
The leader must know, must know that he knows, and must be able to make it abundantly clear to those around him that he knows. — Clarence Randall
Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values. — Mike Vance
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. —Thomas Jefferson
I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. -Charles Maurice
He who has great power should use it lightly. —Seneca
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. —Colin Powell
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. —General Dwight Eisenhower
He who has learned how to obey will know how to command. —Solon
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. —Kenneth Blanchard
In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people… they no longer can lead solely based on positional power. -John Maxwell
Learn to see things backwards, inside out, and upside down. -John Heider, Tao of Leadership
A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men. —Stephen King
Leadership is influence. —John C. Maxwell
The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue. None ought to govern who is not better than the governed. -Publilius Syrus
It is impossible to imagine anything which better becomes a ruler than mercy. -Seneca
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. — Peter F. Drucker
Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves. -Lao Tzu
The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny … it is the light that guides your way.” – Heraclitus

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