Leadership Quotes

Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.

Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision.

None of us is as smart as all of us.

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.

It's alright to be Goliath but always act like David.

Leadership is an elusive concept, hard to describe and impossible to prescribe. It is more evident in its absence, so that when leadership is needed, its lack is sorely felt.

In any series of elements to be controlled, a selected small fraction, in terms of numbers of elements, always accounts for a large fraction in terms of effect.

Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers.

Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.

A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them.

You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.

Leadership is providing inspiration and vision, then developing and empowering others to achieve this vision.

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.

Spiritual leadership is moving people on to God's agenda.

A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.

Ego can’t sleep. It micro-manages. It disempowers. It reduces our capability. It excels in control.

The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful.

Leadership is about falling in love with the people you serve and the people falling in love with you.

It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper.

There's only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.

Luck favors the bold. Leaders must fearlessly exploit the Secret of Decisiveness. Act boldly at critical moments.

The boss depends on authority; the leader on goodwill.

I can give you a six-word formula for success: "Think things through - then follow through."

Bipartisanship isn't an option anymore; it is a requirement. The American people have divided responsibility for leadership right down the middle.

Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.

Leading with integrity is embracing honesty! We should always use our weaknesses to point others to Christ's strength.

Great leadership usually starts with a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a desire to make a difference.

Remember the difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, Go! A leader says, Let's go!

To keep the wrong leader in the wrong place prevents the right leader from being in the right place.

Leadership is a choice, not a position

Visionary people face the same problems everyone else faces; but rather than get paralyzed by their problems, visionaries immediately commit themselves to finding a solution.

It is rare to find a business partner who is selfless. If you are lucky it happens once in a lifetime.

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.

It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all.

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.

The first step to leadership is servanthood.

Such leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.

The difference between good and great is just a little extra effort.

The major challenge of most executives is not understanding the practice of leadership - it is practicing their understanding of leadership.

If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.

Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why.

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.

The sky cannot have two suns.

The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.

I haven't always recruited for the best talent. I've taken a few guys who would fit for different reasons. Leadership. Toughness

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

Remember that the six most expensive words in business are: 'We've always done it that way'

Listening (the first competence of leadership) is not a skill, it is a discipline. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut.