quotations about leadership
The real leader has no need to lead -- he is content to point the way.
HENRY MILLER
The Wisdom of the Heart
Woe to the country which hath lost its leader; woe to the ship when its captain is no more.
TALMUD
Leadership is the catalytic gift that energizes, directs, and empowers all the other gifts.
BILL HYBELS
Courageous Leadership
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY
attributed, Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity
Leadership is evoking in others the capacity to dream.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Leadership Gold
Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.
ALAN KEITH
attributed, The Leadership Challenge
There is a troublesome humor some men have, that if they may not lead, they will not follow; but had rather a thing were never done, than not done their own way, tho' other ways very desirable.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.
PETER F. DRUCKER
attributed, The Fundamentals of Leadership
There are many leaders, not just one. Leadership is distributed. It resides not solely in the individual at the top, but in every person at every level who, in one way or another, acts as a leader to a group of followers -- wherever in the organization that person is, whether shop steward, team head, or CEO.
DANIEL GOLEMAN, RICHARD BOYATZIS & ANNIE MCKEE
Primal Leadership
Life is the leader's laboratory, and exemplary leaders use it to conduct as many experiments as possible. Try, fail, learn. Try, fail, learn. Try, fail, learn. That's the leader's mantra. Leaders are learners. They learn from their failures as well as their successes, and they make it possible for others to do the same.
JAMES M. KOUZES & BARRY Z. POSNER
The Leadership Challenge
Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.
COLIN POWELL
The Powell Principles
If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it.
BILL MAULDIN
The Brass Ring
The multitude who require to be led, still hate their leaders.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
Leadership is about creating the future, not predicting it.
MARSHALL SASHKIN & MOLLY G. SASHKIN
Leadership that Matters
Leadership is the outward expression of our inner character.
DICK ABEL
The DNA of Leadership
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Developing the Leader Within You
If the experience of leadership is like being at the edge of an unfamiliar chasm, the act of leadership is building a bridge across that chasm.
KEVIN CASHMAN
Leadership from the Inside Out
Leadership is taken, not given.
LOUISE STERLING & SUE DAVIDOFF
The Courage to Lead
Take the ideas of the masses and concentrate them, then go to the masses, persevere in the ideas and carry them through ... such is the basic method of leadership.
MAO ZEDONG
"Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership", Jun. 1, 1943
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
The Power of Leadership