LEADERSHIP QUOTES VIII

quotations about leadership

Leading is a hot seat and some of us embrace it and some of us don't. And there are always ways to do it better.

MEGHAN M. BIRO

"5 Great Ways To Hack Your Leadership Style", Forbes, April 22, 2016


At the heart of leadership is the leader's relationship with followers. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.

DAVID GERGAN

Eyewitness to Power


Think like a leader from the start. Even the most intense apprenticeship phase isn't designed to endow you with leadership skills. That's why you should find ways to develop these skills on your own, as soon as you get your feet wet.

CHRISTIAN BONILLA

"Leadership is a quality that you can teach yourself", Quartz, April 11, 2016


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


What was leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason.

ROBERT HARRIS

Pompeii


Leaders are said to be responsive to what their followers want because the followers choose the leader and leaders want to keep their leadership positions. The assumption that leaders will be responsive to followers because leaders want to win and hold power is a useful starting point for understanding the politics of leadership in any democratic institution. However, such an assumption may become misleading if leaders are understood to care only about retaining their leadership positions. If some congressional leaders are strongly committed to political goals beyond remaining leader--and we shall see that some are--we would not expect those leaders always to be inclined to take their bearings from what their followers want. When opportunities arise to pursue other intensely held goals, some may be willing to act independently of followers and even risk their leadership positions in pursuit of those goals. If so, leaders who are more risk-tolerant may be consequential for influencing outcomes in a wider range of political situations than just those situations in which their followers are already mostly in agreement.

RANDALL STRAHAN

Leading Representatives


Poor leadership is itself a scandal.

MARIAM MOKHTAR

"Poor leadership is itself a scandal", Free Malaysia Today, March 30, 2016


'Tis a dainty thing to command, though 'twere but a flock of sheep.

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Don Quixote

Tags: Miguel de Cervantes


The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.

SETH GODIN

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us


I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.

ROBERT E. LEE

attributed, Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations


A leader is best when people barely know he exists.

LAOZI

Tao Te Ching


I will not follow where the path may lead; instead I will go where there is no path and leave a trail.

MURIEL STRODE

My Little Book of Prayer


While managers focus on the task to be completed, the process to complete it, and supervising a set of people to get there, the leaders role is more ambiguous. They must envision, set new directions, and inspire and value their team. To be a leader, it is absolutely essential to listen to people and understand their needs.

JACOB MORGAN

"What Does Leadership Look Like In The Future Of Work?", Forbes, March 28, 2016


All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH

The Age of Uncertainty

Tags: John Kenneth Galbraith


Leadership is made by strong men with strong convictions, not clerks who study commas on lawslates.

BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON

Dune: House Harkonnen


Men are loyal when you lead from the front.

PAOLO BACIGALUPI

The Windup Girl

Tags: Paolo Bacigalupi


Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.

JOHN C. MAXWELL

Leadership Gold


By leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

attributed, The Federal Career Service: A Look Ahead

Tags: Dwight D. Eisenhower


If leadership is the act of going beyond what is ... it begins by going beyond what is within ourselves.

KEVIN CASHMAN

Leadership from the Inside Out


The strength of the group is in the will of the leader, and the will is character in action.

VINCE LOMBARDI

attributed, Run to Win: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership

Tags: Vince Lombardi