Leadership Quotes

Leaders are all about what isn't and what-needs-to-be be.

You cannot be effective if those who work for you are not. So building their effectiveness ought to be a priority.

Your leadership depends on you. You can only be a great leader when you can lead yourself well first.

Leadership is not always about getting things done 'right.' Leadership is about getting things done through other people.

Only do what only you can do.

The economy is very different in the world that we're living in. And I think Americans are looking for executive leadership that actually has some experience of creating jobs.

It is those who have the distinction of privilege who set the standards of disgust with failure.

Excellence is the asymptotic state that never quite reaches perfection.

There is no morality without temptation; otherwise it is just lack of opportunity.

It is not the time to put school districts up for auction. Now is the time to galvanize them into action.

Leadership is the cigarette that's smoked once the change has been consummated.

The very first task of leadership is to set the vision for the organization. If you don't set the vision, you're not the leader.

When creativity is the goal, schools must have their own platforms to network and innovate.

Educational reforms are like ripe fruit. They rarely travel well.

We should test prudently; not profligately.

The economists who have put the spotlight on teacher quality are the ones who most misunderstand it.

Professional trust is a process, not a state.

Teachers who don't pull their weight drag down the profession and their colleagues with it.

Economic necessity should be the mother of educational invention

The rules of the world are changing. It is time for the rules of teaching and teachers' work to change with them.

High performance leaders know they have to breathe out when they are coming up for air.

Business and leadership is about the future. What worked five years ago is unlikely to work tomorrow.

Sustainable leadership does not compromise the future by expanding and accelerating too quickly in the present.

Schools cannot shut their gates and leave the outside world on the doorstep.

Leadership is about taking charge and influencing others to follow your vision. It's about going against the odds and accepting responsibility for the outcomes along the way

Leadership is often the afterthought of educational change.

On learning: if you really want alignment, go to a chiropractor.

Trust processes as well as people.

Students are often the last to know about change that is occurring in their own school system.

Words have power. Use the language of leadership versus the vocabulary of a victim.

The first move of leadership is learning to think for yourself.

Adolescence is about digging out the iron inside irony.

All teachers are already leaders. It's in the nature of teaching.

Sustainable leadership does no harm to and actively improves the surrounding environment.

Leadership is no longer about position - but passion. It's no longer about image but impact. This is Leadership 2.0.

A runner doesn't just show up and win a race. He trains long and hard. Do you just show up every day and hope to win?

Leadership is one of the most enduring, universal human responsibilities.

American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves.

Education leaders must have the will at times to release leadership to the teachers the parents and the students.

If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership.

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

Improvement is about doing something better; innovation is about doing something new.

The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others.

Blame and betrayal are the emotional enemies of improvement.

Over time, I have come to this simple definition of leadership: Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.

Teaching is an emotional practice: it activates, colors & expresses people's feelings.

We will not achieve high performance in education if we replace teachers with machines or turn teachers into machines.

Without optimism & self-belief among teachers, classrooms become wastelands of boredom & routine and schools deserts of lost opportunity.

Don't surrender leadership of your life to your moods

On school culture: It's hard to eat something you've had a relationship with.