quotations about leadership
Leadership is the power of one harnessing the power of many.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Leadership Gold
A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.
JAMES CALLAGHAN
The Harvard Business Review, Nov. 1, 1986
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
Long Walk to Freedom
Leadership is the catalytic gift that energizes, directs, and empowers all the other gifts.
BILL HYBELS
Courageous Leadership
Leadership is evoking in others the capacity to dream.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Leadership Gold
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
Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.
ALAN KEITH
attributed, The Leadership Challenge
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
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 the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.
COLIN POWELL
The Powell Principles
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 taken, not given.
LOUISE STERLING & SUE DAVIDOFF
The Courage to Lead
The multitude who require to be led, still hate their leaders.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characteristics
People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Developing the Leader Within You
If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it.
BILL MAULDIN
The Brass Ring
True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but about those they serve. It is not about exalting themselves but about lifting others up.
SHERI L. DEW
Saying It Like It Is
Leadership is the outward expression of our inner character.
DICK ABEL
The DNA of Leadership
Leadership is about creating the future, not predicting it.
MARSHALL SASHKIN & MOLLY G. SASHKIN
Leadership that Matters
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
The Power of Leadership
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