quotations about leadership
The leader continually passes on the vision to those who come around, knowing that dreams, if presented right, are contagious.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Developing the Leader Within You
'Tis a dainty thing to command, though 'twere but a flock of sheep.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
There are two kinds of leaders: those who are interested in the flock, and those who are interested in the fleece.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.
COLIN POWELL
"10 Leadership Tenets from Colin Powell", Stanford Graduate School of Business
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.
SETH GODIN
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Leadership is not something you do to people, but something you do with people.
KEN BLANCHARD
Leading at a Higher Level
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
The Age of Uncertainty
The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.
TONY BLAIR
Mail on Sunday, Oct. 2, 1994
Leadership is made by strong men with strong convictions, not clerks who study commas on lawslates.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Harkonnen
I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.
ROBERT E. LEE
attributed, Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations
Men are loyal when you lead from the front.
PAOLO BACIGALUPI
The Windup Girl
By leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
attributed, The Federal Career Service: A Look Ahead
I will not follow where the path may lead; instead I will go where there is no path and leave a trail.
MURIEL STRODE
My Little Book of Prayer
If leadership is the act of going beyond what is ... it begins by going beyond what is within ourselves.
KEVIN CASHMAN
Leadership from the Inside Out
What was leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason.
ROBERT HARRIS
Pompeii
Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Leadership Gold
Leadership is not a job, not a role one plays at work and then puts aside during the commute home in order to relax and enjoy real life. Rather, leadership is the leader's real life.
CHRIS LOWNEY
Heroic Leadership
A leader is best when people barely know he exists.
LAOZI
Tao Te Ching
The strength of the group is in the will of the leader, and the will is character in action.
VINCE LOMBARDI
attributed, Run to Win: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership
Leaders are expected to look into the future, to gaze across the time horizon and communicate to us what they see. It's not about being prescient or clairvoyant. It's about being discerning and perceptive. It's about noticing what's around the corner.
JAMES M. KOUZES & BARRY POSNER
A Leader's Legacy