Good Leadership Quotes:

Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team.

- John C. Maxwell

topic: Team, Inspire, Good Leadership

Without leadership ability,a person's impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership.

- John C. Maxwell

source: John C. Maxwell (2007). “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You”, p.5, Thomas Nelson Inc

topic: Impact, Good Leadership, Fractions

Good leadership is about the company's success, not your own.

- Anne M. Mulcahy

topic: Leadership, Good Leadership, Good Leader

Good leadership is hard to measure on a daily basis which is why so many default to doing what's easy to measure instead.

- Simon Sinek

source: Twitter post from May 07, 2015

topic: Good Leadership, Easy, Default

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

- John D. Rockefeller

topic: Leadership, Average, People, Top Management, Managing People

Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure.

- Arleigh Burke

source: "Naval Leadership : Voices of Experience". Book by Karel Montor (p. 18), 1998.

topic: Leadership, Determination, Jobs, Leadership Skills, Involving

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

- Ken Blanchard

topic: Inspirational, Successful, Keys, Top Management, Influencing People

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

- Mahatma Gandhi

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Time, Funny Leadership, Leadership Roles

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

- John F. Kennedy

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Educational, Live And Learn, Top Management

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.

- Barack Obama

topic: Believe, Government, People, Bad Government, Good Leadership

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

- Harvey S. Firestone

topic: Leadership, Helping Others, People, Innovation And Leadership, Leadership And Service

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'. They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they think 'team'.

- Tom Peters

topic: Leadership, Teamwork, Kids, Inspirational Team Building, Leadership And Management

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

- Tom Peters

topic: Leadership, Business, Insperational, Leadership And Management, Leadership Skills

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

- Theodore Hesburgh

source: Interview with Philip Scarpino, tobiascenter.iu.edu. January 6, 2009.

topic: Leadership, Business, Blow, True Leader, Innovative Leadership

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

- Theodore Roosevelt

topic: Inspirational, Relationship, Leadership, True Leader, Innovation And Leadership

Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

- Peter Drucker

topic: Leadership, Sight, Personality, True Leader, Inspiring Leader

The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way.

- Henry Miller

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Business, Lead Characters, Leadership Courage

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

- Albert Schweitzer

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Success, Influencing People, Inspiring Leader

In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.

- Ken Blanchard

topic: Leadership, Power, Past, Leadership By Famous Leaders, Servant Leadership

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women.

- Groucho Marx

topic: Motivational, Leadership, Witty, Funny Leadership, Leadership Skills

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.

- John Buchan

topic: Inspirational, Greatness, People, Leadership By Great Leaders, Leadership Skills

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

- Jack Welch

source: Jack Welch, Janet Lowe (2007). “Jack Welch Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Business Leader”, John Wiley & Sons

topic: Leadership, Leader, Growing, Innovative Leadership, Workforce

A leader leads by example not by force.

- Sun Tzu

source: "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, translated by Chow-Hou Wee, (Chapter IX), 2003.

topic: Army, Leader, Example, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2

A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him.

- Laozi

topic: Leadership, People, Good Man, Leadership Courage, Leadership Training

No general can fight his battles alone. He must depend upon his lieutenants, and his success depends upon his ability to select the right man for the right place.

- Philip Danforth Armour

topic: Leadership, Fighting, Men, Leadership By Famous Leaders, Leadership In Education

High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

- George Orwell

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Winning, Pinching, Inspiring Leader

A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.

- Polybius

topic: Leadership, Victory, Way, True Leader, Military Leader

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

topic: Motivational, Leadership, Graduation, True Leader, Funny Leadership

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

- Sam Walton

source: Attributed in "The 101 Greatest Business Principles of All Time" by Leslie Pockell, November 23, 2004.

topic: Motivational, Leadership, Educational, True Leader, Inspirational Self Esteem

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists.

- Witter Bynner

topic: People, Boss, Leader, Managing People, Funny Leadership

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.

- Warren G. Bennis

source: Warren G. Bennis (1997). “Managing People is Like Herding Cats”, Executive Excellence Pub

topic: Leadership, Heart, Organization, Leadership And Management, Leadership By Famous Leaders

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

- John J. Pershing

topic: Leadership, Leader, Troops, Inspiring Leader, Leadership And Service

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.

- Peter Drucker

source: Peter F. Drucker (2009). “Concept of the Corporation”, p.26, Transaction Publishers

topic: Leadership, Average, Needs, Leadership By Famous Leaders, Good Leadership

What you can't enforce, do not command.

- Sophocles

topic: Leadership, Future Leaders, Great Leader, Leadership In Education, Leadership Skills

Be strong, but not rude; Be kind, but not weak; Be bold, but not bully; Be humble, but not timid; Be prooud, but not arrogant.

- Zig Ziglar

source: FaceBook post by Zig Ziglar from Dec 27, 2013

topic: Leadership, Strong, Humble, True Leader, Leaders Motivational

The building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

- Peter Drucker

topic: Personality, Normal, Building, True Leader, Leadership And Change

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

- Ralph Nader

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring, Top Management, True Leader

I believe one of the requirements of good leadership is the ability to listen - really listen - to those in your organization. An effective leader is very good at listening, and it's difficult to listen when you are talking.

- John Wooden

topic: Believe, Talking, Organization, Good Leadership

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

- Peter Drucker

topic: Inspirational, Change, Leadership, Top Management, Management Motivation

If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologise than it is to get permission.

- Grace Hopper

source: "Built to Learn: The inside story of how Rockwell Collins became a true learning organization". Book by Cliff Purington, Chris Butler, and Sarah Fister Gale, p. 171, 2003.

topic: Business, Ideas, Easier, Good Leader, Future Leaders

A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

topic: Business, Leader, Followers, Good Leader, Presidential Leadership

Remember the difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, Go! A leader says, Let's go!

- George E. M. Kelly

topic: Business, Differences, Leader, Funny Leadership, Spiritual Leader

Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present.

- Rudy Giuliani

source: 2004 Republican National Convention Address, delivered 30 August 2004, Madison Square Garden, New York

topic: Leadership, Vision, Needs, Leadership And Vision, Leadership Vision

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

- Jack Welch

source: "Speed, Simplicity, Self-Confidence". Interview with Noel Tichy and Ram Charan, hbr.org. September/October 1989.

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Insperational, Top Management, Spiritual Vision

Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.

- Orrin Woodward

source: Twitter post from Mar 18, 2016

topic: Motivational, Average, Leader, Inspiring Others, Outstanding Leaders

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

- Douglas MacArthur

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Troops, Good Leader, Good Leadership

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

topic: Motivational, Leadership, Business, Leading On, Good Leader

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

- Aristotle

topic: Leadership, Dancing, Followers, Leadership By Great Leaders, Good Leader

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.

- Peter Drucker

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Basketball, True Leader, Inspiring Leader

Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.

- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

topic: Leadership, Powerful, Role Models, Leadership By Famous Leaders, Leadership Roles

Good leaders must first become good servants.

- Robert K. Greenleaf

topic: Leadership, Firsts, Good Leader, Customer Experience, Inspirational Service