Thoughts of Famous Leadership Quotes in English and Sayings

Certainly a leader needs a clear vision of the organization and where it is going, but a vision is of little value unless it is shared in a way so as to generate enthusiasm and commitment. Leadership and communication are inseparable.

- Claude I. Taylor

One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." Arnold Glasow" People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

- Theodore Roosevelt

In handling men, there are three feelings that a man must not possess - fear, dislike and contempt. If he is afraid of men he cannot handle them. Neither can he influence them in his favor if he dislikes or scorns them. He must neither cringe nor sneer. He must have both self-respect and respect for others.

- Herbert N. Casson

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.

- Douglas McCarther

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

- Warren G. Bennis

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group.

- Russell H. Ewing

It's not always easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character, it forces you to make decisions based upon your beliefs and not what other people think. In life, and in business, you have to stand for what you believe in and sometimes you have to stand alone. But, what makes you a leader is having the courage of your convictions.

- Queen Latifah

I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a "transformer" in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.

- Stephen R. Covey

The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says "I"; The leader says "WE". The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, "GO"; the leader says "LET'S GO!"

- H. Gordon Selfridge

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.

Lao-Tzu

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

- Woodrow Wilson

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

- Leadership Thoughts by Warren G. Bennis

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

- Leadership Thoughts by Dwight D. Eisenhower Download or Share *

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

- A Quotation From Seth Godin Download or Share

Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.

- John C. Maxwell Download or Share

Leadership is an action, not a position.

- Donald McGannon Quotation

Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better.

- Bill Bradley

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

- Harold Geneen

Leadership is an ever-evolving position.

- Leadership Quotes in English by Mike Krzyzewski

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

- John F. Kennedy

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

- Margaret Fuller

You manage things; you lead people.

- Grace Murray Hopper

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

- Tony Blair

Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.

- James Humes

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

- Peter F. Drucker

There are no office hours for leaders.

- Cardinal J. Gibbons

Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

- Margaret Thatcher

The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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

- Ray Kroc

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

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

- John Maxwell

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

- Ralph Nader

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

- Arnold Glasow

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

- Harvey S. Firestone

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.

- Warren Bennis

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

- Stephen Covey

A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs.

- Robert Townsend

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

Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.

- Pete Hoekstra

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.

- Joel Barker

Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.

- John Zenger

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

- Arnold Glasow

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

- Henry Kissinger

Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.

- Dianne Feinstein

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

- Andrew Carnegie

You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.

- Sam Rayburn

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

- Steve Jobs

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

- John Buchan

The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them.

- Carlos Ghosn

A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.

- Leroy Eimes

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

- Ralph Nader

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

- Jack Welch

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

- Martin Luther King Jr.

To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.

- Pat Riley

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

- Bill Gates

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

- Ken Blanchard

A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.

- Henry Ford

Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.

- Tom Landry

Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

- Peter F. Drucker

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.

- Rosalynn Carter

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.

- Brian Tracy

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, or any goal.

- Vince Lombardi

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.

- Lao Tzu

A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.

- M. D. Arnold

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

- Rosalynn Carter

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

- Colin Powell

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.

- Brian Tracy

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

- Peter F. Drucker

Leadership is something you earn, something you’re chosen for. You can’t come in yelling, ‘I’m your leader!’ If it happens, it’s because the other guys respect you.

– Ben Roethlisberger

Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.

- Orrin Woodward

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

- Henry Kissinger

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

- Mike Krzyzewski

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

- Diogenes of Sinope

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

- Sam Walton

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

All of 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. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

- John Kenneth Galbraith

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.

- Douglas MacArthur

Leadership Sayings in English

What luck for rulers that men do not think.

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Lift, Lead and Love.

- Spencer W. Kimball Download or Share

A leader is a dealer in hope.

- Napolean I Download or Share

He who reads is never alone.

- Helder Simone Download or Share

Leadership is influence.

- Leadership Quotes in English by John C. Maxwell Download or Share

Respect a man, he will do the more.

- James Howell Download or Share

Grow antennae, not horns.

- Dr. James Rowland Angell Download or Share *

Leadership is an action, not a position.

- Donald H. McGannon Download or Share

You manage things; you lead people.

- Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper Download or Share

Learn to obey before you command.

- Solon Download or Share

Consensus is the negation of leadership.

- Margaret Thatcher

The crowd gives the leader new strength.

- Evenius

It is much safer to obey, than to govern.

- Thomas Kempis

Education is the mother of leadership.

- Wendell Lewis Wilkie

The man whose authority is recent is always stern.

- Aeschylus

The only real training for leadership is leadership.

- Anthony Jay

There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers.

- Marshall Loeb

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

- Michael O'Brien

Entrepreneurs are the forgotten heroes of America.

- Ronald Reagan

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

- Warren G. Bennis

Eagles don't flock - you have to find them one at a time.

- H. Ross Perot

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.

- Andre Malraux

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

- Leadership Quotes by Lee Iacocca

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

- Harold S. Green

If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!

- Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It's great to work with somebody who wants to do things differently.

- Keith Bellow

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

- Aristotle

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

- William Penn

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

- Kenneth Blanchard

You will never be a leader unless you first learn to follow and be led.

- Tiorio

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

- Chan Master Fuchan Yuan

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

- Max Lucado

Rule a kingdom as though you were cooking a small fish, don't overdo it.

- Lao Tse

The human mind is as driven to understand as the body is driven to survive.

- Hugh Gilmore

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

- James Crook

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

- Chinese Proverb

Leadership Quotation in English

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.

- Dennis A. Peer

You do not lead by hitting people over the head, that's assault, not leadership.

- General David Dwight Eisenhower

The same ambition can destroy or save, And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

- Alexander Pope

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

- Jesse Jackson

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.

- Peter Drucker

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in is justice.

- George Goethals *

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Muriel Strode

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.

- Richard Harkness

I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

- Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run ever faster if encouraged.

- Publius Ovidius Naso Ovid

No two men can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

- Dr. Samuel Johnson

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.

- Toma Landry

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.

- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

- Marian Anderson

There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hope soon to be swept away.

- Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

- Eric Hoffer

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

- General George Smith Patton, Jr.

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

- Leadership Quotes by Casey Stengel

An army of deer would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than an army of lions commanded by a stag.

- Viking Proverb

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 DuPree

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

- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

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

- Elaine Agather

The common characteristics of people make a community possible, but it is their uncommon qualities that make it better.

- John H. Fischer

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.

- Lao-Tzu

Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before.

- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Leadership Quotes List

Leadership is the ability of a single individual through his or her actions to motivate others to higher levels of achievement.

- F. G. Buck Rodgers

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.

- Rosalynn Carter

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

- Jim Rohn

To lead in the 21st century-to take soldiers, sailors, and airmen into battle, you will be required to have both character and competence.

- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love.  To be loved without 'playing up' to anyone - even to himself.

- Leadership Thoughts by Andre Malraux

The marksman hitteth the target partly by pulling, partly by letting go. The boatsman reached the landing partly by pulling, partly by letting go.

- Egyptian Proverb

You can send a message around the world in one-fifth of a second, yet it may take years for it to get from the outside of a man's head to the inside.

- Charles Franklin Kettering

A President either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a single moment.

- Harry S. Truman

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.

- Sam Walton

My responsibility, our responsibility as lucky Americans, is to try to give back to this country as much as it has given us, as we continue our American journey together.

- Colin Powell

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, or any goal.

- Vince Lombardi

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

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 can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

- Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh

A salesman, like the storage battery in your car, is constantly discharging energy. Unless he is recharged at frequent intervals he soon runs dry. This is one of the greatest responsibilities of sales leadership.

- R. H. Grant

Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

- Harry S. Truman

It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.

- Thomas Wolfe

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.

- Jim Rohn