Quotations about Leadership

Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; a boss says "Go!" - a leader says "Let's go!" ~E.M. Kelly


A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says "I was beaten," he does not say "My men were beaten." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery


A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not. ~Author Unknown


Leadership is action, not position. ~Donald H. McGannon


You can't lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself. ~Gene Mauch


The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it. ~Elaine Agather


You don't have to hold a position in order to be a leader. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book


Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. ~Albert Schweitzer


Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. ~Robert Jarvik


You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower


Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself. ~Thomas J. Watson


If two or three persons should come with a high spiritual aim and with great powers, the world would fall into their hands like a ripe peach. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


A leader is a dealer in hope. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, attributed


Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders. ~Tom Peters


One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you. ~Dennis A. Peer


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


A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists.
~Witter Bynner, The Way of Life According to Laotzu


The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way. ~Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart


If you wish a general to be beaten, send him a ream full of instructions; if you wish him to succeed, give him a destination, and bid him conquer. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827



I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. ~Charles Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand-Périgord


A man is only a leader when a follower stands beside him. ~Mark Brouwer


I suppose that leadership at one time meant muscle; but today it means getting along with people. ~Indira Gandhi


Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present. ~Rudy Giuliani


A leader leads by example not by Force. ~Sun Tzu


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


The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. ~Theodore Roosevelt


He led his regiment from behind -
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O.
~W.S. Gilbert


Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow. ~Vince Lombardi


We have great managers who haven't spent a day in management school. Do we have great surgeons that haven't spent a day in surgical school? ~Henry Mintzberg


Every leader needs to look back once in a while to make sure he has followers. ~Author Unknown


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


There is a significant difference between a leader and a cheerleader. ~Author Unknown


Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower


When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy. ~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"


No man is a leader until his appointment is ratified in the hearts and minds of his men. ~Author Unknown


Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish. ~Anne Bradstreet


A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done. ~Ralph Nader


Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. ~Charles Simic


Management is nothing more than motivating other people. ~Lee Iacocca


There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them. ~Alexandre Ledru-Rollin


I am not a labor leader. I don't want you to follow me or anyone else. If you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of the capitalist wilderness you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into this promised land if I could, because if I could lead you in, someone else could lead you out. ~Eugene V. Debs


To lead the people, walk behind them. ~Lao-Tzu


Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership. ~Eric Hoffer