Inspiring Quotes On Leadership

Quotes on leadership - Lighthouse on Robben Island, Mandela's prison for 27 years, South Africa.

This is a collection of famous quotes on leadership that I think bring out the essence of what it truly means to be a an effective leader.

Quotes On Leadership

• "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

• “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

• “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon Bonaparte

• "There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust." Klaus Balkenhol

• "Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar." Orrin Woodward

• "I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." Ralph Nader

• "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 Maxwell

• "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

• "I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be." Warren Bennis

• "Leadership is intentional influence." Michael McKinney

More Quotes On Leadership

Wall painting at Mika Conference Centre, Lusaka, Zambia

• "Power isn't control at all--power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn't someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own." Beth Revis

• "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

• "A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them." M.D. Arnold

• "Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away." Admiral James B. Stockdale

• "The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership." Gary Wills

• "A leader is one who influences a specific group of people to move in a God-given direction." J. Robert Clinton

• "Max DePree popularized the idea that leadership is an art. So much of what a leader does cannot be objectively measured. To reduce leadership to a set of algorithms is to remove it from its context; to ignore the complexities, the contradictions, and the possibilities. Artists must deal with uncertainty, contradictions and diversity almost by definition. Leaders need to have this capacity."
  — Michael McKinney

Even More Quotes On Leadership

I was intirgued by these chains at the garage where my car was getting fixed

• "A leader...is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." Nelson Mandela

• "The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." Ronald Reagan

• "A leader takes people where they would never go on their own." Hans Finzel

• "Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position." Brian Tracy

• "Success at the highest level comes down to one question: 'Can you make the choice that your happiness can come from someone else's success?' No one has qualities like courage, vision, charisma, adaptability, and decisiveness in equal measure. But every great leader does make the same decision--and so can you." Jeff Haden

• "While a good leader sustains momentum, a great leader increases it." John C. Maxwell

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

• "You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too." Sam Rayburn

• "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

• "Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated."
  — Fred Smith

Other Pages With Quotes On Leadership

I trust you have enjoyed these quotes on leadership. Here are more pages you will likely enjoy:

1. Leadership Quotes Main Page
   
2. Famous Leadership Quotes
3. Quotes About Leadership
4. Leadership Quotations