Leadership Quotes

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

Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.

~ Margaret Thatcher

Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.

~ Harry Truman

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.

~ Colin Powell

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

Some are young people who don't know who they are, what they can be or even want to be. They are afraid, but they don't know of what. They are angry, but they don't know at whom. They are rejected and they don't know why. All they want is to be somebody.

~ Thomas S. Monson

In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.

~ Max Depree

If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive;and, unless submissive, then will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attachedto you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be unless.

~ Sun Tzu

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.People will follow.

~ Seth Godin

And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.

~ Elizabeth I

You did what your heart told you to do,' Brain complimented. 'It is what leaders, not followers, do.

~ Tonya Hurley

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

~ Anonymous

...There are also those who inadvertently grant power to another man's words by continuously trying to spite him. If a man gets to the point where he can simply say, 'The sky is blue,' and people indignantly rush up trying to refute him saying, 'No, the sky is light blue,' then, whether they realize it or not, he has become an authority figure even to such adversaries.

~ Criss Jami

A general never shows despair. He instills confidence in his troops. He leads them forward, even into the mouth of death.

~ Rick Riordan

You don't know what you can get away with until you try.

~ Colin Powell

There is a darkness in you. In all of us, probably. Beasts we keep chained. Ordinary men have to keep the chains strong, for if we let the beast loose then society will turn upon us with fiery vengeance. Kings though...well, who is there to turn upon them? So the chains are made of straw. It is the curse of kings, Helikaon, that they can become monsters. And they invariably do.

~ David Gemmell

If you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead. Even the highest mountain had animals that step on it.

~ Jack Weatherford

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

~ Orrin Woodward

The best form of saying is being

~ Ernesto Che Guevara

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.

~ Ralph Moody

In a battle between  two ideas, the best one doesn't necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.

~ Seth Godin

Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die.

~ Frank Herbert

The first key to leadership is self-control.

~ Jack Weatherford

A sign of power in a man is not only when people follow what he suggests, but also when people make a conscious effort to do the exact opposite of what he suggests.

~ Criss Jami

I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.(Washington DC, 12 May, 2008)

~ George W. Bush

Why did Africa let Europe cart away millions of Africa's souls from the continent to the four corners of the wind? How could Europe lord it over a continent ten times its size? Why does needy Africa continue to let its wealth meet the needs of those outside its borders and then follow behind with hands outstretched for a loan of the very wealth it let go? How did we arrive at this, that the best leader is the one that knows how to beg for a share of what he has already given away at the price of a broken tool? Where is the future of Africa?

~ Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o

Always try to associate yourself with and learn as much as you can from those who know more than you do, who do better than you, who see more clearly than you.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.

~ Patrick Lencioni

The world is full of men who want to be right, when actually the secret of a man's strength and his pathway to true honor is his ability to admit fault when he has failed. God wants to fill the church with men who can say they are wrong when THEY ARE WRONG. A man who is willing to humble himself before God and his family and say:I was wrong. will find that his family has all the confidence in the world in him and will much more readily follow him. If he stubbornly refuses to repent or admit he was wrong, their confidence in him and in his leadership erodes.

~ Jim Anderson

True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but about those they serve. It is not about exalting themselves but about lifting others up.

~ Sheri Dew

Each day you are leading by example. Whether you realize it or not or whether it's positive or negative, you are influencing those around you.

~ Rob Liano

At that moment, in the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate. For one beat of his pulse the lame rabbit's idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him.

~ Richard Adams

To all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

~ Barack Obama

A leader must lead. Where others see obstacles, he must see opportunities. When others see problems, he must see possibilities ... Civilization is not built on a negation but on an affirmation- an affirmation of the bright and promising possibilities that the future holds for those who are enterprising enough to pursue them.

~ David J. Vaughan

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leaders in all realms and activities of life knew that the power they had come to hold existed because they were responsible to serve the many, thus power was position of service.

~ Vanna Bonta

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.

~ Peter F. Drucker

Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.

~ Patrick Lencioni

Unless today is well lived, tomorrow is not important.

~ Alan Sakowitz

People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.

~ Peter F. Drucker