Leadership Quotes

The most important ingredient of leadership is character. Most of the proficiencies can be learned, but what's inside you is something that's difficult to change.

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

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.

Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves.

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

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.

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.

Life is like a dogsled race. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.

Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders.

Leadership is no longer about your position. It's now more about your passion for excellence and making a difference You can lead without a title

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

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 Lets GO!

The man who promises everything is sure to fulfil nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

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.

Walls turned sideways are bridges.

When you are right,you have no need to be angry. When you are wrong, you have no right to be angry.

I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.

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

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.

Look wide, beyond your immediate surroundings and limits, and you see things in their right proportion. Look above the level of things around you and see a higher aim and possibility to your work.

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Leadership is solving problems. 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 or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.

The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.

The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.

Look wide, and even when you think you are looking wide - look wider still.

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

I have always thought that what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership in others.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

You see things and you say, 'Why?'. But I dream things and I say, 'Why not?'.

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.

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

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

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.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

I can feel guilty about the past,
Apprehensive about the future,but only in the present can I act.The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

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

Until you spread your wings,
you'll have no idea how far you can fly.

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.