The concept of leadership is as fluid and ever-changing as society itself. If not so long ago, a leader came to power by literal strength and ruled his subordinates with an iron fist more often than not, then in this day, a leader is something entirely different. A leader learns together with his crew, encourages them, and treats them as equals, while taking upon themselves all the risks associated with a vital decision. No iron fists here, but rather understanding and a guiding word to be a better you. For all we know, all leaders everywhere should strive to become this and not reverse themselves to the traditions of dictators, tsars, and vicious kings! So, we’ve gathered some beautiful leadership quotes that we hope will inspire those in the upper echelons of society to act accordingly.
Even if you’re not a leader in its traditional sense, you can definitely employ these moving quotes in your daily life. They are easily applicable to relationships, family dynamics, and, of course, the work environment. Without pushing you to seize power, these leadership quotes might nudge you in the right direction of people treating you with respect and valuing your opinion. That is, if you read these beautiful quotes carefully and try to live by them. This might seem like a mammoth task initially, but once you read into these intelligent quotes, you will see that all they are talking about is, essentially, the one and only truth about life!
So, what are we waiting here for? Shouldn’t we already be reading the best leadership quotes rounded up here? They are, as usual, just a smidgen further down, and once you are there, don’t forget to vote for the wisest quotes you’d like to start living by! Then, of course, once all of that is done, don’t forget to share this article with your friends.
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"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." — Abraham Lincoln
"Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths." — John Zenger
"Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led." — Ross Perot
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." — General Dwight Eisenhower
"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." — Arnold Glasow
"In leadership, there are no words more important than trust. In any organization, trust must be developed among every member of the team if success is going to be achieved." – Mike Krzyzewski
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” - John Maxwell
"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
"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." — Bill Gates
"To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult." — Friedrich Nietzsche
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." — Jack Welch
"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
"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
"Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems." — Brian Tracy
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
"The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground." — Sir Winston Churchill
"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
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway." — Eleanor Roosevelt
"Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership." — Donald Rumsfeld
"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
"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities." — Maya Angelou
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." — John Quincy Adams
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." — Thomas Jefferson
"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
"The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." — Harvey Firestone
"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
“Leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex moral relationship between people based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good.” — Joanne Ciulla
“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” — Dolly Parton
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” — Joe DiMaggio
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it.” — Tina Fey
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” — Isaac Newton
“Leaders shouldn’t attach moral significance to their ideas: Do that, and you can’t compromise.” – Peter F. Drucker
“You can’t aspire to be loved, because that isn’t going to happen, nor do you want people to be frightened of you. Stay somewhere in the middle and have them respect and trust and see you as fair.” – Sir Alex Ferguson
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Warren Buffett
"Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals."
"The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them." - John Maxwell
"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
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead
"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes." — Peter Drucker
"A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together." — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible." — Polybius
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." — Norman Schwarzkopf
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." — Stephen Covey
"Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow." — Chinese Proverb
"To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way." — Pat Riley
"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
“One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.” — Jacinda Ardern
“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.” — Thomas Aquinas
“I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.” – John Hume
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” – Dalai Lama
"Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating." – Simon Sinek
“The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.” — Brandon Sanderson
"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet." - Theodore M. Hesburgh
"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
"Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position." — Brian Tracy
"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
"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
"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
"The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist." — Eric Hoffer
"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 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
"Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing." — Tom Peters
"The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision." — Ken Blanchard
“Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” — Mary D. Poole
“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
“Leadership is something you earn, something you’re chosen for. You can’t come in yelling, ‘I’m your leader!’ If it happens, it’s because the other guys respect you.” — Ben Roethlisberger
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” — William Arthur Ward
“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
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” — Barack Obama
“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
“It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” ― Adlai E. Stevenson
"Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." — Peter Drucker
"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
"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." — Stephen Covey
"I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be." — Warren Bennis
"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
