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LEADERSHIP | 10/16/2012 @ 8:37AM | 193,672 views

100 Best Quotes on Leadership

A great quote can provide personal inspiration and can be used toeducate others. Below are my top 100 leadership quotes of all time.(Have a favorite quote that didn’t make my list? Share it out in thecomments section below!)

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

1.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. —Proverbs 29:182.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? —Benjamin Disraeli3.

You manage things; you lead people. —Rear Admiral Grace MurrayHopper

4.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to saythank you. In between, the leader is a servant. —Max DePree

5.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —WarrenBennis

6.

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. — General George Patton7.

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. Whenyou become a leader, success is all about growing others. —JackWelch

8.

A leader is a dealer in hope. —Napoleon Bonaparte9.

You don’t need a title to be a leader. –Multiple Attributions10.

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

11.

My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to12.

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limitations. —Peter Drucker

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can changeworld. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead

14.

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping theirears to the ground. —Sir Winston Churchill

15.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is agenetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leadersare made rather than born. —Warren Bennis

16.

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —Andre Malraux17.

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. —Aristotle18.

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had notitle or position. —Brian Tracy

19.

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders,not more followers. —Ralph Nader

20.

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership isdefined by results not attributes. —Peter Drucker

21.

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. —Publilius Syrus22.

A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

23.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do whathe wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them whilethey do it. —Theodore Roosevelt

24.

Leadership is influence. —John C. Maxwell25.

You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by goingto that place and making a case. —Ken Kesey

26.

When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out.—Napoleon Bonaparte

27.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is noleadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leadersseize the opportunity to change things for the better. —Harry S. Truman

28.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. —John Maxwell29.

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people towork. —Peter Drucker

30.

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

31.

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be avision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow anuncertain trumpet. —Reverend Theodore Hesburgh

32.

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. —KennethBlanchard

33.

A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory isimpossible. —Polybius

34.

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.—John Maxwell

35.

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people wherethey don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. —Rosalynn Carter

36.

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; bebold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be

37.

Kevin KruseContributor

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I'm a serial entrepreneur whose companies havewon both Inc 500 and Best Place to Work awards.I'm also a NY Times bestselling author and speaker.My newest book is Employee Engagement 2.0. Todownload free chapters visit my website atwww.kevinkruse.com.

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A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make toughdecisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set outto be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity ofhis intent. —Douglas MacArthur

39.

A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward. —Ovid40.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all thecredit for doing it. —Andrew Carnegie

41.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want donebecause he wants to do it. —General Dwight Eisenhower

42.

The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of thevisionary and the idealist. —Eric Hoffer

43.

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about theproblems. —Brian Tracy

44.

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

45.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise youwith their ingenuity. —General George Patton

46.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.—Bill Gates

47.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was thewillingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in theirtime. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. —John KennethGalbraith

48.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway.—Eleanor Roosevelt

49.

Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary toleadership. —Donald Rumsfeld

50.

Education is the mother of leadership. —Wendell Willkie51.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management isdiscipline, carrying it out. —Stephen Covey

52.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument,debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. —General ColinPowell

53.

Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by thepresence of clear strengths. —John Zenger

54.

He who has great power should use it lightly. —Seneca55.

He who has learned how to obey will know how to command. —Solon56.

I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroicfollowership can be. —Warren Bennis

57.

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula forfailure, which is: Try to please everybody. —Herbert Swope

58.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.—Maya Angelou

59.

If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either writethings worth reading, or do things worth the writing. —Benjamin Franklin

60.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and becomemore, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams

61.

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It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when youcelebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there isdanger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. —Nelson Mandela

64.

Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventoriescan be managed but people must be lead. —Ross Perot

65.

Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else,through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, orany goal. —Vince Lombardi

66.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead tomotivate them. —John C. Maxwell

67.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. —John F. Kennedy68.

Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moralchallenge of the day. —Jesse Jackson

69.

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. —Woodrow Wilson70.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must bewithout one, be without the strategy. —Norman Schwarzkopf

71.

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

72.

Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts. —Erskine Bowles73.

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. —Bill Bradley74.

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing andenhancing. —Tom Peters

75.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determineswhether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. —Stephen Covey

76.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed. —General Douglas MacArthur77.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.—Abraham Lincoln

78.

What you do has far greater impact than what you say. —Stephen Covey79.

Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.—Chinese Proverb

80.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before itbecomes an emergency. —Arnold Glasow

81.

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the convictionand the will to carry on. —Walter Lippman

82.

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

83.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.—Harvey Firestone

84.

To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.—Friedrich Nietzsche

85.

To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have tobe obsessed in some way. —Pat Riley

86.

True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone isperforming at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well.—Bill Owens

87.

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stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.—Eleanor Roosevelt

A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on thecontrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops. —John J Pershing

91.

A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and alittle less than his share of the credit. —John Maxwell

92.

There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage. —FuchanYuan

93.

I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground forleadership, but raising children isn’t. —Dee Dee Myers

94.

A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men. —Stephen King95.

My responsibility is getting all my players playing for the name on the front of thejersey, not the one on the back. –Unknown

96.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed nextweek. –George Patton

97.

The supreme quality of leadership is integrity. –Dwight Eisenhower98.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership.–Dwight Eisenhower

99.

Earn your leadership every day. –Michael Jordan100.

——————————————————————-

Kevin is a NY Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur. His latestbook is Employee Engagement 2.0.

Kevin loves to connect with readers. Reach out and grab his newsletter atkevinkruse.com.

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Hi Kevin, Thought you might like to check out a list of leadership quotes I pulled from ourresearch on speed of strategy execution. We published our findings in Strategic Speed(HBP, 2010), and although some of these more “colorful” quotes didn’t make the book,

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Thanks, Steve, those were great. Just tweeted them out with a link, too.

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Hi Kevin – try this one: “The plausibility of impossibility only becomes a probability inthe absence of leadership.”

Reply

Love that quote, Mike. And love your contributions on Forbes. Among thestrongest content here I believe!

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I love this list. Here is a quote that is very applicable to the industry that I am currently in” A title doesn’t make you a leader any more that standing in a garage makes you a car”Food for thought…What if….Leadership was more than a buzzword

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