Thoughtful Quotes About Leadership

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Do or do not. There is no try.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.

You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.

I have had a lot of setbacks that I have learned from.

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

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

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.

Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

Leadership is a mindset in action. So don't wait for the title. Leadership isn't something that anyone can give you -- you have to earn it and claim it for yourself.

Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.

The only prerequisites to leadership are that you remain positive, calm, and open-minded.

The best form of saying is being.

Leadership is action, not position.

One secret of leadership is that the mind of a leader never turns off. Leaders even when they are sightseers or spectators, are active; not passive observers.

The art of communication is the language of leadership.

The best boss is the one who bosses the least.

Always remember, Son, the best boss is the one who bosses the least. Whether it's cattle, or horses, or men; the least government is the best government.

The journey of leadership begins outside your comfort zone.

The fastest surging woman leadership position is heading non-profit organizations. Women are not rejecting leadership positions -- they're rejecting politics.

Leadership is not a position but an energy that people love, trust and follow.

Leadership is fixing your eyes not just on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Leadership is igniting the creative magic within you that adds joy and value to you and others.

You can't move up in the staircase of leadership unless you are emotionally intelligent.

Leadership grows like tall trees. It needs both toughness and flexibility -- toughness for accountability -- flexibility to adapt changes with a compassionate and caring heart for self and others.

Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it underscores the need for leadership.

Leadership is all about taking people on a journey. The challenge is that most of the time, we are asking people to follow us to places we ourselves have never been.

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Some people feel, you make your case, if they listen to you, fine, if they don't, that's it. That's not what leadership is. Leadership is trying to continue to make a case.

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

Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better.

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.

Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.

An army of a thousand is easy to find, but, ah, how difficult to find a general.

True leadership is servanthood. Put the interests of others at the center of your decisions.

Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.

A lion never roars after a kill.

The most important thing in good leadership is truly caring.

Be an example, be positive, be enthusiastic, be proactive -- that is proactive leadership.

A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people.

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

Leaders are not known by their positions; they are known by their roles in those position. You have many gifts as a leader, but your dominant gift is what you will use to lead.

You cannot climb up to a true leadership position unless you use the ladder of integrity!

True leaders do not make choices with reference to the opinion of the majority. They make choices based on the opinion of the truth and the truth can come from either the majority or the minority!

Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.

A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can't.

Find the right people, not the best people.

There are no office hours for leaders.

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.

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.

If becoming a high performing organization is the destination, leadership is the engine.

The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.

What helps people, helps business.

Leadership is standing with your people. People say you have to live to fight another day, but sometimes you have to show you are a true leader.

The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.

Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do.

If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult to master strategy.

When placed in command, take charge.

You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.

Leaders always choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong.

Leadership is not just about giving energy… it's unleashing other people's energy.

You're only as good as the people you hire.

True leadership is caring about the people who don't care about things you care about.

The most serious failure of leadership is the failure to foresee.

A leadership culture is one where everyone thinks like an owner, a CEO or a managing director. It's one where everyone is entrepreneurial and proactive.

Leadership is a mindset that shifts from being a victim to creating results. Any one of us can demonstrate leadership in our work and within our lives.

Leadership is no longer about your position. It's now more about your passion for excellence and making a difference. You can lead without a title.

Leadership distilled down to 3 words: Make a difference.

Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.

Do more listening than talking; talk more about them than about you.

Leaders are limited by their vision rather than by their abilities.

One of the best ways to influence people is to make them feel important. Most people enjoy those rare moments when others make them feel important. It is one of the deepest human desires.

Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives.

Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.

Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change you believe in.

True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.

Be the leader you wish you had.

A boss has the title, a leader has the people.

The cost of leadership is self-interest.

Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve. Period.

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

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.

The best leaders are servant leaders -- they serve those they lead.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Education is the mother of leadership.

Get the best people and train them well.

Leadership -- leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.

Constant, gentle pressure is my preferred technique for leadership, guidance, and coaching.

Empowerment isn't a buzzword among leadership gurus. It's a proven technique where leaders give their teams the appropriate training, tools, resources, and guidance to succeed.

Good leadership is about the company's success, not your own.

Effective leadership is about earning respect, and it's also about personality and charisma.

Leadership demands that we make tough choices.

Leadership requires the courage to make decisions that will benefit the next generation.

I think leadership is something you earn, more through actions than words.

You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart.

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.

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.

I don't know what leadership is. You can't touch it. You can't feel it. It's not tangible. But I do know this: you recognize it when you see it.

Leadership is about doing what you know is right -- even when a growing din of voices around you is trying to convince you to accept what you know to be wrong.

The more varied the environments in which you exercise your leadership gift, the stronger that gift will become. You will become a far more effective leader.

Great leadership is by definition relentlessly developmental.

Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes.

At the heart of great leadership is a curious mind, heart, and spirit.

To me, leadership is about encouraging people. It's about stimulating them. It's about enabling them to achieve what they can achieve -- and to do that with a purpose.

Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

The sharp employ the sharp.

That is what leadership is all about: staking your ground ahead of where opinion is and convincing people, not simply following the popular opinion of the moment.

I think leadership is service and there is power in that giving: to help people, to inspire and motivate them to reach their fullest potential.

At the heart of leadership is the leader's relationship with followers. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.

Leadership can change its mind; leadership can open its eye. Leadership can even be replaced.

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.

Our emerging workforce is not interested in command-and-control leadership. They don't want to do things because I said so; they want to do things because they want to do them.

Good leaders don't tell people what to do, they give teams capability and inspiration.

Leadership means setting a moral tone.

Leadership can't be fabricated. If it is fabricated and rehearsed, you can't fool the guys in the locker room. So when you talk about leadership, it comes with performance. Leadership comes with consistency.

True leadership has people who follow when they have the freedom not to.

Making those around you feel invisible is the opposite of leadership.

Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.

I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act, is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences.

You can lead with or without a title. If you wait until you get a title, you may wait forever.

For me, leadership is making a difference. It's using your agency to bring about change.

Mahatma Gandhi was someone who demonstrated the tremendous power of leadership by example.

You have to lead people gently toward what they already know is right.

Most leadership strategies are doomed to failure from the outset. As people have been noting for years, the majority of strategic initiatives that are driven from the top are marginally effective -- at best.

Leaders are like gardeners ... As leaders we are not only responsible for harvesting our own success but for cultivating the success of the next generation.

My philosophy of leadership is to surround myself with good people who have ability, judgment and knowledge, but above all, a passion for service.

Leadership must be likeable, affable, cordial, and above all emotional. The fashion of authoritarian leadership is gone. Football is about life. You can't be angry all day.

Humility is a great quality of leadership which derives respect and not just fear or hatred.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists.

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.

Leadership is your ability to hide your panic from others.

Deal with it before it happens. Set things in order before there is confusion.

It's very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed.

Leadership is not about working towards a goal single-handedly. Leadership is about inspiring and motivating people to work together towards a goal.

How to influence people without using power is the key to leader effectiveness.

The best leaders are the hungriest learners.

Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.

A good leader must hate the wrong thing more than they hate the pain of doing the right thing.

People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

Serving is the best kind of Leading.

Leadership was never a one day process, it's a daily process that lasts a few decades.

All leadership is appreciative leadership. It's the capacity to see the best in the world around us, in our colleagues, and in the groups we are trying to lead.

Growing your leadership capacity demands personal effectiveness. Being effective is the ability to do the right thing at all times, no matter the cost.

Successful leadership is a commitment to the journey of tireless growth.

Growth is first of all for a leader's benefits before others shares the benefits. The best gift a leader can give to those he has been called to lead is the evidence of his own growth.

The first key to leadership is self-control.

Charisma is the result of effective leadership, not the other way around.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.

Leadership is the sum of those qualities of intellect, human understanding, and moral character that enables a person to inspire and control a group of people successfully.

Influence is the key word in any definition of leadership.

Often the crowd does not recognize a leader until he has gone, and then they build a monument for him with the stones they threw at him in life.

Leaders who want to show sensitivity should listen often and long and talk short and seldom. Many so-called leaders are too busy to listen. True leaders know that time spent listening is well invested.

Serving others prepares you to lead others.

If you don't value excellence, you won't achieve excellence.

Leadership is leading the way, guiding the way, living the way.

An effective leader is not a pleaser.

A leader is someone who is lifting a person, a community, or a group of people towards greater things, greater ideas and achievements leading to better life and experiences.

The most powerful weapon in the world is -- a QUESTION.

Leaders shouldn't lie.

Great leaders are not micro-managers. Leadership is about making big things happen.

Results drive respect. Respect yields authority. Leaders who deliver results, command respect.

Leadership is all about taking initiatives.

Emotional security is the hall-mark of great leadership.

It's up to you, not about you.

Great leaders make people feel important.