Leadership Quotes & Thoughts

Visionary Leadership

1. "The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You cannot blow an uncertain trumpet." – Theodore Hesburgh
2. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." – John C. Maxwell
3. "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." – Bill Gates
4. "The only safe ship in a storm is leadership." – Faye Wattleton
5. "The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails." – John Maxwell
6. "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." – Warren G. Bennis
7. "Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results." – Peter Drucker
8. "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs
9. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." – John C. Maxwell
10. "Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power." – Seth Berkley

Empathy and Connection

1. "Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another." – John C. Maxwell
2. "The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." – Ronald Reagan
3. "Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself." – Mohsin Hamid
4. "Leadership is an action, not a position." – Donald McGannon
5. "The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; kind, but not weak; bold, but not a bully; thoughtful, but not lazy; humble, but not timid; proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly." – Jim Rohn
6. "Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity." – Reed Markham
7. "The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been." – Henry Kissinger
8. "We must open the doors of opportunity, but we must also equip our people to walk through those doors." – Lyndon B. Johnson
9. "To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." – Eleanor Roosevelt
10. "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." – Phil Jackson

Innovative Leadership

1. "Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." – Gloria Steinem
2. "Innovation and imagination need to be supported by good leadership and an entrepreneurial climate." – Klaus Schwab
3. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. "Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge." – Simon Sinek
5. "A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position." – John Maxwell
6. "The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes." – Tony Blair
7. "The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." – Ray Kroc
8. "Leaders are limited by their vision rather than by their abilities." – Roy T. Bennett
9. "The real leader has no need to lead — he is content to point the way." – Henry Miller
10. "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." – Stephen Covey

Leadership and Integrity

1. "The supreme quality of leadership is integrity." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
2. "Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you." – Malcolm Forbes
3. "With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide." – Zig Ziglar
4. "Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not." – Oprah Winfrey
5. "Leaders must be bridges that bring people together rather than walls that divide." – John Maxwell
6. "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." – Max DePree
7. "Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing." – Mary D. Poole
8. "True leadership lies in guiding others to success—in ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well." – Bill Owens
9. "The price of greatness is responsibility." – Winston Churchill
10. "Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships." – Stephen R. Covey

Servant Leadership

1. "A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit." – Arnold Glasow
2. "You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." – John F. Kennedy
4. "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." – Ralph Nader
5. "Servant leadership is superior because it provides more enduring and substantive guidance in times of change." – John C. Maxwell
6. "Leading people is the ability to effectively pack up a group and move them on a journey." – Peter G. Northouse
7. "A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes." – John C. Maxwell
8. "Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway." – Eleanor Roosevelt
9. "To serve is to care wholeheartedly." – Lori Deschene
10. "The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist." – Eric Hoffer

Transformational Leadership

1. "Transformational leadership is centered around vision and passion to inspire others to bring out the best in those around them." – Tap Into Transformation
2. "Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems." – Brian Tracy
3. "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person." – Mother Teresa
4. "Transformational leaders don’t start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they’d like to create." – Seth Godin
5. "Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out." – Stephen R. Covey
6. "The leader has to have knowledge as well as the propensity and ability to translate it into a vision, plan, and executive task." – Jacque Fresco
7. "To lead people, walk behind them." – Lao Tzu
8. "The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led. This is the ultimate test of his effectiveness." – Omar N. Bradley
9. "Transformational leadership focuses on transforming others to help each person become who they are meant to be." – Ron Edmondson
10. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." – Martin Luther King Jr.

Authentic Leadership

1. "Authentic leaders have distinct characteristics: they have a deep understanding of themselves and use this to lead with purpose." – Bill George
2. "Leadership entails vigilance against complacency, resolve in the face of adversity, and empathy when dealing with those you serve." – Michael Bloomberg
3. "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." – William Shakespeare
4. "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." – Martin Luther King Jr.
5. "Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great." – Mark Twain
6. "Your authenticity will lead you more accurately than anything else." – Ashley Hetherington
7. "Leadership is not about having all the answers but about trusting in others’ potential." – Jess Campbell
8. "_Being a leader is not about you. It’s about the people that are on your team and how you can help them be successful."_ – Susan Wojcicki
9. "The authentic leader is honest, open, and fair." – George H.W. Bush
10. "Leadership is an influence of trust and example." – Howard Schultz

Leadership and Courage

1. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston S. Churchill
2. "It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog." – Mark Twain
3. "Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised." – Walt Disney
4. "A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." – Nelson Mandela
5. "It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women." – Louisa May Alcott
6. "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. "Leadership is the ability to make other people better as a result of your presence and ensure that impact lasts in your absence." – Sheryl Sandberg
8. "I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear." – Rosa Parks
9. "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." – Mark Twain
10. "Leadership means believing in personal integrity and that if you’re leading a company, there is no one to pass it off to." – Martha Stewart

Leadership in Action

1. "Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." – Harold S. Geneen
2. "Action is the foundational key to all success." – Pablo Picasso
3. "Leadership is about taking responsibility while others are making excuses." – John C. Maxwell
4. "Acting is standing up again and again when you know you'll get knocked down." – Jonathan Berry
5. "A leader's most valuable asset is not a desk or office or car but a way of thinking." – Chris Cebollero
6. "Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance." – J. Donald Walters
7. "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." – Eleanor Roosevelt
8. "All 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." – John Kenneth Galbraith
9. "Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better." – Bill Bradley
10. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others but far enough ahead to motivate them." – John C. Maxwell