Quotes and Sayings about Leadership

When there is a common goal to be achieved, leadership must be in action to achieve that goal. However, leading people is one of the most difficult tasks every manager should accomplish. Directing or motivating people involves a more human interaction and understanding. That is why this management function is called the heart of management. So if you want to be a successful business person, manager or employer, you should become a good to great leader. The following are powerful quotes, quotations and sayings about leadership from famous and proven great leaders of our history.

“The leader follows in front” -Proverb quotes

“To lead the people, walk behind them.”  -Lao-Tzu

“Remember the difference between a boss and a leader; a boss says “Go!” – a leader says “Let’s go!”  -E.M. Kelly

“A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.”  -Author Unknown

“Leadership is action, not position.”  -Donald H. McGannon

“You can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself.”  -Gene Mauch

“You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.”  -Anthony J. D’Angelo, The College Blue Book

“A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” -Max Lucado

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head.  That’s assault, not leadership.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.” -Thomas J. Watson

“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” -Stephen Covey

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”  -Napoleon Bonaparte, attributed

“Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” -Tom Peters

“Get the best people and train them well.” -Scott McNealy

“A good
leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.” -John C. Maxwell

“A leader is best, When people barely know that he exists. -Witter Bynner, The Way of Life According to Laotzu

“I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep.”  -Charles Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand-Périgord

“A man is only a leader when a follower stands beside him.”  -Mark Brouwer

“A leader leads by example not by Force.”  -Sun Tzu

“If you command wisely, you’ll be obeyed cheerfully.” -Thomas Fuller

“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

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren G. Bennis

“Every leader needs to look back once in a while to make sure he has followers.” -Author Unknown

“The art of leadership is saying no, not yes.  It is very easy to say yes.” -Tony Blair

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” -Steve Jobs

“Leadership:  the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” -John C. Maxwell

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.” -Anne Bradstreet

“There go my people.  I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.” -Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

“Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.” -Bernard Baruch

“Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength.” -Ralph W. Sockman

“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” -Henry A. Kissinger

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” -Margaret Fuller

“You have to think anyway, so why not think big?” -Donald Trump

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John C. Maxwell

“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” -John Maxwell

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” -John Quincy Adams

“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

“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

“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” -Colin Powell

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea” -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“He that cannot obey, cannot command.” -Benjamin Franklin

“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

“When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.” -Lao Tzu

“If you have no character to lose, people will have no faith in you” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” -Stephen R. Covey

“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” -Arnold H. Glasgow