Leadership Quotes

Define excellence vividly, quantitatively. Paint a picture for your most talented employees of what excellence looks like. Keep everyone pushing and pushing toward the right-hand edge of the bell curve.

~ Marcus Buckingham

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

~ Richie Norton

Leadership is the art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand.

~ John Ortberg

Your greatest area of leadership often comes out of your greatest area of pain and weakness.

~ Wayde Goodall

It is only through dialogue, deep listening, and passionate disagreement that we find our way to something larger than a singular and isolated point of view.

~ Henry Kimsey-House

He could follow someone’s mind around, and get where it was going before the other fellow knew where it was going.

~ Robert A. Caro

As a king can wear a crown, a crown can also weary a king.

~ Anthony Liccione

Washington not only fit the bill physically, he was also almost perfect psychologically, so comfortable with his superiority that he felt no need to explain himself. (As a young man during the French and Indian war he had been more outspoken, but he learned from experience to allow his sheer presence to speak for itself.) While less confident men blathered on, he remained silent, thereby making himself a vessel into which admirers for their fondest convictions, becoming a kind of receptacle for diverse aspirations that magically came together in one man.

~ Joseph J. Ellis

From her character in the HBO miniseries: The art of politics is the art of applying the seat of the britches to the seat of the chair.

~ Abigail Adams

Good units walk a thin line between indiscipline and ineffectiveness. Ignore the rules too often and you’ve got a mob, but enforce the rules too strictly and you’ve got a herd.

~ Henry V. O'neil

The Shah had traveled to Europe and had been fascinated by the march of progress he observed there. But, once back in Terhan, this fascination had not been translated into sustained Persian modernization, but rather dissipated in the Shah's intense but short-lived passion for the latest novelties. He is continually taking up and pushing some new scheme or invention which, when the caprice has been gratified, is neglected or allowed to expire.

~ Charles Emmerson

If leadership is the spinal cord of success then discipline is its lumbar vertebrae.

~ Noel Dejesus

The assistant commander at any post is supposed to be a ruthless son of a bitch.

~ Tom Clancy

Under a bad leadership Serbs are capable of committing the most terrible atrocities; under good leaders we can do great deeds. It's like a field - if it's not cared for, the weeds will take over. But if you tend it, water and feed the seeds, you will read a bountiful harvest. Serbs are lazy, we lack discipline and have no capacity for self-criticism. With Their Backs to the World

~ Åsne Seierstad

Presenting leadership as a list of carefully defined qualities (like strategic, analytical, and performance-oriented) no longer holds. Instead, true leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed.... Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.

~ Sheryl Sandberg

The organization of supplies, the command of men, anything in any way constructive requires more than intellect; it requires energy and drive and an unrelenting will to serve the cause, regardless of one's personal interests.

~ Erwin Rommel

He was the first prime minister in a long time who did not have a son or a son-in-law in business or real estate

~ Sanjaya Baru

TAKE' nothing for granted..The 'GIVE' may be expensive!

~ Abha Maryada Banerjee

Most of us want to be authentic. Yet, we are not who we think we are. We are made up of a rich array of facets and possibilities, many of which we ignore because we label them as “bad”. We create a cardboard cutout image of ourselves to look good to others. The discord between who we are and the image we have to live up to slowly kills our aliveness. When we suppress parts of ourselves, it lowers our mojo, sense of fulfillment, leadership effectiveness and impact in the workplace.

~ Henna Inam

If we try to emulate the leadership style of others we perceive as successful, we end up being second-rate versions of someone else.

~ Henna Inam

Authentic leadership is about leading from the core of who we are to inspire each of us to our best contribution toward a shared mission.

~ Henna Inam

And a young prince must be prudent like that,giving freely while his father livesso that afterwards, in age when fighting startssteadfast companions will stand by himand hold the line.

~ Seamus Heaney

Human Dignity has five characteristics : A playful curiosity,a capacity for dreams, a sense of humor to achieve and correct those dreams, a certain flexibility and spontaenity of behavior, a capacity to fight for and save those dreams !

~ Abha Maryada Banerjee

SILENCE does not always mean 'NEUTRALITY'! Sometimes, it may mean 'consenting' to a wrong, sometimes it may mean 'condoning' a mistake and sometimes it may mean giving space to the wrong doer....SOMETIMES, we need to get up and FIGHT!

~ Abha Maryada Banerjee

All the time and effort put into networking can be all for naught if there is no follow-through. The same goes for sales. And leadership. And … well, everything.

~ Beth Ramsay

If your Idea cannot CHANGE the INDUSTRY, you have added no VALUE

~ Fela Durotoye

He had to do so many things and make each appear as though it were the only thing he had to do. He had to compartmentalize everything, when on one task to pretend that the others didn't exist.

~ Tom Clancy

Not every President is a great speaker. Not every President is a great thinker. But in the modern era, every single President is a master of one thing: eye contact.

~ Brad Meltzer

The loneliness of command had made Eisenhower emotionally self-sufficient.

~ Jean Edward Smith

When you allow yourself the abilityto challenge your doubts, to embraceyour deepest and darkest fears,that is when you learn how to bea healer and hero in your own life story~bns

~ Bluenscottish

Challenges in life always seek leaders and leaders seek challenges.

~ Wayde Goodall

The theory that something has to be big to have a significant impact is false.

~ Angela Lynne Craig

Coachable people seek out those who speak truth to them, even if it is a painful truth, because it protects them and it makes them a better person and leader.

~ Gary Rohrmayer

Whether a chief executive officer (CEO) is applying the practices to build an organizational vision or an employee is helping a colleague resolve a problem, anyone at any organizational level can leverage leadership practices.

~ Gary Depaul

Effective leaders are good spotters. They are on the lookout forpotential leaders. They have the ability to look beyond other’s deficiencies tosee their possibilities.

~ Gary Rohrmayer

#Leadership is not how much you can take away from others,it is about how much you can inspire,teach and build others by example ~bns

~ Bluenscottish

The fundamental characteristic that enables hidden leadership to bloom is demonstrating integrity.

~ Scott K. Edinger

One of the landmines that church planters never dodge is the landmineof leadership development. I will never forget the day when I realizedthat there are no such things as 'ready-made leaders'.

~ Gary Rohrmayer

Having a good definition of spiritual leadership is critical to developmentof leadership cultural throughout your church. You need to know what you areshooting for if you are going to hit the target.

~ Gary Rohrmayer

There is nothing worse for a young convert than to be thrust into leadership without mentoring and ongoing coaching because the devil relishes these vulnerable souls.

~ Gary Rohrmayer