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Leadership Quotes

“Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it.” – Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“Entrepreneurship is largely about living with doubt, as is creating just about any sort of art. If you need reassurance, you’re giving up quite a bit to get it. On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking out uncertainty, you’ll have developed a great instinct.” – Seth Godin, author of Lynchpin

“The most successful leader of all is one who sees another picture not yet actualized.” – Mary Parker Follet, management scholar (1868-1933)

“Successful executives are great askers.” – Warren Bennis, leadership guru and author of On Becoming a Leader

“Powerful organizations adore the status quo, so expect no help from them if your idea challenges the very thing they adore.” – Seth Godin, author, speaker, marketing/business consultant

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell, American Entrepreneur, Author and motivational speaker.

“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.”, John C. Maxwell, American Entrepreneur, Author and motivational speaker

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” John C. Maxwell, American Entrepreneur, Author and motivational speaker.

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy, American 35th US President (1961-63), 1917-1963

“A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.” Source: unknown

“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, Singer; actor

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”- Abraham Lincoln, American 16th US President (1861-65), who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. 1809-1865

“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, Chinese taoist Philosopher, founder of Taoism, wrote “Tao Te Ching” (also “The Book of the Way”). 600 BC-531 BC

“A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves” – Source: unknown

“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.” – Harold S. Geneen, American Businessman, He was CEO of ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) (1959-77), 1910-1997

“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, American Speaker and Author.

“The led must not be compelled, they must be able to choose their own leader” – Albert Einstein, German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955

“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.” – Peter F. Drucker, American Educator and Writer, born 1909

“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, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93). Born 1937

“To lead the people, walk behind them.” – Lao Tzu , Chinese Taoist Philosopher, founder of Taoism, wrote “Tao Te Ching” (also “The Book of the Way”). 600 BC-531 BC)

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.” – Lao Tzu , Chinese taoist Philosopher, founder of Taoism, wrote “Tao Te Ching” (also “The Book of the Way”). 600 BC-531 BC)

“He that cannot obey, cannot command.”- Benjamin Franklin, American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790

“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, American Football Coach, national symbol of single-minded determination to win.1913-1970

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

“A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” – David R. Gergen, American journalist and U.S. White House advisor b. 1942

“If you have no character to lose, people will have no faith in you” – Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948

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