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Great leaders are able to inspire those around them. With that in mind, check out the top 93 leadership quotes.
Table of Contents
#93 – 90. Leadership Quotes
93. I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples. Mother Teresa
92. A boss has the title, a leader has the people. Simon Sinek
91. “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch
90. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Warren Bennis
#89 – 80. Leadership Quotes
89. Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence. Sheryl Sandberg
88. Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led. Warren Bennis
87. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs
86. “Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.” – Walt Disney
85. Anyone, anywhere, can make a positive difference. Mark Sanborn
84. “Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” – Rosa Parks
83. “You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.” – Ken Kesey
82. “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
81. Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. Seth Godin
80. Leadership is an action, not a position. Donald McGannon
#79 – 70. Leadership Quotes
79. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” – Bill Gates
78. “To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn’t know where he is going.” – Joe Namath
77. “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” – Mahatma Gandhi
76. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Bill Gates
75. “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
74. Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing. Peter F. Drucker
73. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”– Woodrow Wilson
72. “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” —Thomas Jefferson
71. “To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” – Pat Riley
70. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett
#69 – 60. Leadership Quotes
69. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Max Lucado
68. Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. John C. Maxwell
67. “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Chuck Swindoll
66. Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult. Warren Bennis
65. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” – Henry Ford
64. “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” – Dianne Feinstein
63. “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
62. Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. Bill Bradley
61. “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” – Malala Yousafzai
60. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan
#59 – 50. Leadership Quotes
59. Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front. Nelson Mandela
58. “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” – Publilius Syrus
57. If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader. Dolly Parton
56. We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children. Kofi Annan
55. 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
54. “To lead people, walk behind them.” – Lao Tzu
53. “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
52. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” – Alexander the Great
51. “True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” – Sheryl Sandberg
50. “It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright
#49 – 40. Leadership Quotes
49. “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” – J.K. Rowling
48. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” – Winston Churchill
47. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
46. “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
45. “Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.” – Mike Krzyzewski
44. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” – Stephen Covey
43. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
42. Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another. John C. Maxwell
41. “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa
40. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” ― Henry Kissinger
#39 – 30. Leadership Quotes
39. “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
38. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – President Abraham Lincoln
37. Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors. Jocko Willink
36. “If ‘leadership’ has come to be known as something much bigger than us, aligned to changing the world, then we are spending way too much time celebrating things that hardly anyone can do and not celebrating things we can do every day.”- Drew Dudley
35. Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. Peter F. Drucker
34. 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
33. The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones. Brandon Sanderson
32. Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. Peter F. Drucker
31. “One of the most important things for any leader is to never let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution.” – Ginni Rometty
30. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Adams
#29 – 20. Leadership Quotes
29. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward
28. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
27. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie
26. “Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.”- Reed Markham
25. Don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it. Tina Fey
24. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Drucker
23. “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”- Norman Schwarzkopf
22. A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. Martin Luther King Jr
21. In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders. Sheryl Sandberg
20. The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes. Tony Blair
#19 – 10. Leadership Quotes
19. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” – Gen. Colin Powell
18. “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
17. “If you don’t believe in yourself, why is anyone else going to believe in you.” – Tom Brady
16. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. George Patton
15. “A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” – Joe DiMaggio
14. The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. Seth Godin
13. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
12. “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
11. “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground”. – Theodore Roosevelt
10. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. Stephen R. Covey
#9 – 1. Leadership Quotes
9. You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out. Steve Jobs
8. “The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” -Theodore Roosevelt
7. You don’t need a title to be a leader. Mark Sanborn
6. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.” – Herbert Swope
5. “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 Truman
4. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
3. “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
2. Leadership is like third grade: it means repeating the significant things. Max De Pree
1.“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.”- Henry Ford
Ideas for the top 93 leadership quotes were taken from the following sources.[1]Wisdom Quotes – 620 LEADERSHIP QUOTE THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL UNSTOPPABLE[2]Forbes – 16 Leadership Quote To Inspire You To Greatness[3]workzone – 72 Amazing Leadership Quotes That Will Inspire You To Be Great
