LEADERSHIP QUOTES VI

quotations about leadership

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.

ANDRE MAUROIS

"The Art of Leadership", The Art of Living

Tags: Andre Maurois


True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that can't be mandated. It must be earned. The only thing a title can buy is a little time -- either to increase your level of influence with others or to erase it.

JOHN C. MAXWELL

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership


A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.

STEPHEN KING

Under the Dome

Tags: Stephen King


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

ROBERT JARVIK

attributed, Deliberate Success


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

TONY BLAIR

Mail on Sunday, Oct. 2, 1994

Tags: Tony Blair


The leader continually passes on the vision to those who come around, knowing that dreams, if presented right, are contagious.

JOHN C. MAXWELL

Developing the Leader Within You


Leadership is much less about what you do, and much more about who you are. If you view leadership as a bag of manipulative tricks or charistmatic behaviors to advance your own personal interests, then people have every right to be cynical. But if your leadership flows first and foremost from inner character and integrity of ambition, then you can justly ask people to lend themselves to your organization and its mission.

JIM COLLINS

foreward, Hesselbein on Leadership


The best boss is the one who bosses the least.

RALPH MOODY

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers


Who aspires to remain leader must keep in advance of his column. His fear must not play traitor to his occasions. The instant he falls into line with his followers, a bolder spirit may throw himself at the head of the movement initiated, and in that moment his leadership is gone.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Tags: Christian Nestell Bovee


"Safety first" has been the motto of the human race for half a million years; but it has never been the motto of leaders. A leader must face danger. He must take the risk and the blame, and the brunt of the storm.

HERBERT N. CASSON

The Office Economist


Every age fraught with discord and danger seems to spawn a leader meant only for that age, a political giant whose absence, in retrospect, seems inconceivable when the history of that age is written.

DAN SIMMONS

The Fall of Hyperion

Tags: Dan Simmons


It often happens that less depends upon the valor of an army than the skill of the leader.

ARISTOPHANES

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Aristophanes


Leadership is not something you own and keep for yourself. It is a responsibility you are entrusted with for a period of time, and it is a duty you fulfill.

KEITH D. HARRELL

The Attitude of Leadership


Bad leadership is an oxymoron.

JOSEPH CLARENCE ROST

Leadership for the Twenty-first Century


I see [it said that] leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the ... nation will find it very hard to look up to leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

speech in House of Commons, Sep. 30, 1941

Tags: Winston Churchill


Leadership is a form of captivity, in which one is both separated from others and exposed to their judgment.

JOSHUA ROTHMAN

"Shut Up and Sit Down", The New Yorker, February 29, 2016


Truly inspiring leaders are authentic, that is, they have done their strategic homework, they have a vision that matches the people they are working with, and they believe in that vision deeply. They are not faking it.

RONALD J. BURKE & CARY L. COOPER

Inspiring Leaders


Leading means running fast enough to keep ahead of your people.

S. M. STIRLING

The Sunrise Lands

Tags: S. M. Stirling


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

ERIC HOFFER

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Tags: Eric Hoffer


There is no such thing as a perfect leader.... If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant.

LIU SHAOQI

attributed, Mao and China: From Revolution to Revolution