Effective Leadership Quotes

There is no shortcut for hard work that leads to effectiveness. You must stay disciplined because most of the work is behind the scenes.

~ Germany Kent

Effective leadership is doing important things first. Effective management is knowing what is important.

~ Debasish Mridha

Leadership’s primary job is to enhance creative capacity by developing collectively effective leadership.

~ William A. Adams

The real power of effective leadership is maximizing other people’s potential which inevitably demands also ensuring that they get the credit. When our ego won’t let us build another person up, when everything has to build us up, then the effectiveness of the organization reverts to depending instead on how good we are in the technical aspects of what we do. And we have stopped leading and inspiring others to great heights.

~ John Dickson

A leader without a clear vision and plans only abuses his power because visions, dreams and plans are the fulcrum along which the loads of success will spine by your own efforts. And where power is abused, there is manipulation instead of inspiration.

~ Israelmore Ayivor

Having the right attitude is fundamental to being an effective leader.

~ Jim George

One day in my pharmacology class, we were discussing the possibility of legalizing marijuana. The class was pretty evenly divided between those that advocated legalizing marijuana and those that did not. The professor said he wanted to hear from a few people on both sides of the argument. A couple students had the opportunity to stand in front of the class and present their arguments. One student got up and spoke about how any kind of marijuana use was morally wrong and how nobody in the class could give him any example of someone who needed marijuana. A small girl in the back of the classroom raised her hand and said that she didn’t want to get up, but just wanted to comment that there are SOME situations in which people might need marijuana. The same boy from before spoke up and said that she needed to back up her statements and that he still stood by the fact that there wasn’t anyone who truly needed marijuana. The same girl in the back of the classroom slowly stood up. As she raised her head to look at the boy, I could physically see her calling on every drop of confidence in her body. She told us that her husband had cancer. She started to tear up, as she related how he couldn’t take any of the painkillers to deal with the radiation and chemotherapy treatments. His body was allergic and would have violent reactions to them. She told us how he had finally given in and tried marijuana. Not only did it help him to feel better, but it allowed him to have enough of an appetite to get the nutrients he so desperately needed. She started to sob as she told us that for the past month she had to meet with drug dealers to buy her husband the only medicine that would take the pain away. She struggled every day because according to society, she was a criminal, but she was willing to do anything she could to help her sick husband. Sobbing uncontrollably now, she ran out of the classroom. The whole classroom sat there in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, my professor asked, “Is there anyone that thinks this girl is doing something wrong?” Not one person raised their hand.

~ Daniel Willey

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.

~ Bill Hybels

Progress and motion are not synonymous.

~ Tim Fargo

Because our attachment to control is either unexamined or addictive, we do not understand that by relinquishing control and providing choice, we increase our influence and impact many times over.

~ Roger Harrison

One of the most significant barriers to progress is the lack of effective leadership.

~ Ken Jennings

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

~ Benjamin Suulola

To be effective, we have to slow down the speed of our thoughts and focus on managing our attention.

~ Henna Inam

The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up. What do you really want from your company?

~ Stan Slap

Develop your leaders into a competitive advantage. Reconnect your leader-power to success.

~ Gene Morton

The first step to solving any problem is to accept one’s own accountability for creating it.

~ Stan Slap

You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human. You want it. People don't trust companies, they trust people.

~ Stan Slap

Being relevant to your customers only when you’re trying to sell something means choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time.

~ Stan Slap

There will be plenty of other problems in the future. This is as good a time as any to get ahead of them.

~ Stan Slap

The economy is in ruins! Bottom line? Good management will defeat a bad economy.

~ Stan Slap

Your company is its own competition and can deliver itself debilitating blows the competition only dreams of.

~ Stan Slap

Instead of waiting for a leader you can believe in, try this: Become a leader you can believe in.

~ Stan Slap

The purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully.

~ Stan Slap

Profitability. Growth. Quality. Exceeding customer expectations. These are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.

~ Stan Slap

When you’re a manager, you work for your company. When you’re a leader, your company works for you.

~ Stan Slap

Work/life balance is not about escaping work. It’s about living exactly the way you want to when you’re at work.

~ Stan Slap

What first separates a leader from a normal human being? A leader knows who they are as a human being.

~ Stan Slap

True leaders live their values everywhere, not just in the workplace.

~ Stan Slap

The worst thing in your own development as a leader is not to do it wrong. It’s to do it for the wrong reasons.

~ Stan Slap

When rewards come from an external source instead of an internal source, they’re unreliable, which means they’re dangerous if you grow to depend on them.

~ Stan Slap

A company can’t buy true emotional commitment from managers no matter how much it’s willing to spend, this is something too valuable to have a price tag. And yet a company can’t afford not to have it.

~ Stan Slap

Human behavior is only unpredictable and dangerous if you don’t start from humanity in the first place.

~ Stan Slap

Imagine a world where what you say synchs up, not sinks down.

~ Stan Slap

Why live my personal values at work? This is an excellent question to ask. If your attorneys are planning an insanity defense.

~ Stan Slap

Here’s what you need to know most about leadership: Lead your own life first. The only thing in this world that will dependably happen from the top down is the digging of your grave.

~ Stan Slap

The myth of management is that your personal values are irrelevant or inappropriate at work.

~ Stan Slap

It’s impossible for a company to get what it wants most if managers have to make a choice between their own values and company priorities.

~ Stan Slap

Try not to take this the wrong way, but your brain is smarter than you are.

~ Stan Slap

A manager’s emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual & physical commitment combined.

~ Stan Slap

You can stuff yourself with emotional fulfillment until it’s dribbling down your chin & your ego will quickly chomp it down and demand more.

~ Stan Slap