Leadership Quotes

No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

Great companies in the way they work, start with great leaders.

In fair weather prepare for foul.

Leadership - leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

What helps people, helps business.

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

I am a general. My soldiers are the keys and I have to command them.

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.

When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.

The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.

The cautious seldom err.

Leaders grasp nettles.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.

It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

Strong convictions precede great actions.

Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.

Getting in touch with your true self must be your first priority.

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

When placed in command, take charge.

The nicest thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

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

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.

Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention.

Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.

I have always supported measures and principles and not men.

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

Leaders have to act more quickly today. The pressure comes much faster.

When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

To succeed, one must be creative and persistent.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Without initiative, leaders are simply workers in leadership positions.

High expectations are the key to everything.

When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.

Example is leadership.

I don't know any other way to lead but by example.

The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.

Don't find fault, find a remedy.

It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.

I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much.

How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.

The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act.

Leadership does not depend on being right.

One must be convinced to convince, to have enthusiasm to stimulate the others.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.

Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine.

A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better.

Clarity affords focus.

A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.