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850 Powerful Leadership Journey Quotes To Inspire You (2023)

Writer's picture: Jonno WhiteJonno White

1. “A good leader is able to paint a picture of a vision for the future and then enlist others to go on the journey with her. A truly conscious leader recognizes that it is not about her, but that the team is looking to her for inspiration and direction. Keeping her ego in check is essential.”


2. “Make people feel like the hero of their journey and they will do more.”- Maxime Lagacé


3. “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, author and journalist


4. “Be firm, but fair.” Many have probably said this line, but it is something that Lauren Staley, Managing Director of Infolio Property Advisors, has found useful and helpful to her leadership journey.


5. “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” —Margaret Fuller, American journalist and editor


6. “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” —Lao Tzu, philosopher and writer


7. “Leaders don’t force people to follow – they invite them on a journey.” —Charles S. Lauer, author and businessman


8. “Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word.” Brian Tracy


9. “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.” – Edward R. Murrow, American broadcast journalist


10. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.” —Herbert Swope, American editor and journalist


11. “Leadership is all about taking people on a journey. The challenge


12. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. -Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last


13. “Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.”- Winston Churchill


14. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” Reverend Theodore Hesburgh


15. “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.” ~ Warren Bennis


16. “The growth and development of people is the


17. There are three rules for being a good leader: 1. Don't say you are one; 2. Show that you are one; and 3. Lead by example. - Georg W. F. Hegel


18. “If you are committed to creating value and if you aren’t afraid of hard times; obstacles become utterly unimportant. A nuisance perhaps; but with no real power. The world respects creation; people will get out of your way.”


19. “People respond well to those that are sure of what they want.”


20. Leadership is communicating others' worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. -Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People


21. “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” George Patton


22. “Power isn’t control at all—power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own.” —Beth Revis, author


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


24. “I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.” Tupac Shakur


25. “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like


26. Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery. -Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents


27. “The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.”- Winston Churchill


28. “Superior leaders are willing to admit a mistake and cut their losses. Be willing to admit that you’ve changed your mind. Don’t persist when the original decision turns out to be a poor one.” Brian Tracy


29. “In order to remain relevant, you must establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.”- Marc Benioff


30. “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” - Mahatma Gandhi


31. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” – Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister


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


33. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” —Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple


34. “When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.”


35. “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.” – Ronald Reagan<


36. “Leaders think and talk about the solutions.


37. “Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.” ~ Richard Branson


38. “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough


39. Who give more shape to sentient history: the good, who adhere to the tried and true, or those who seek to rouse being from their stupor and lead them to glory? -James Luceno, Star Wars: Darth Plagueis


40. “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” - Elon Musk


41. “Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.” Eleanor Roosevelt


42. “Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved,


43. “He who has great power should use it lightly.”


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


45. “Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.” - E. Joseph Cossman


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


47. “Leadership is about the team – the culture they keep and embrace; it’s about empathy for your customers, clients, employees and the communities where you do business; it’s about doing the right thing for the right reasons, being confident enough to take risks and responsible enough to think of those who your decisions and risks may affect.” —Kat Cole, COO & President of FOCUS Brands


48. “Don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it.” Tina Fey


49. “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


50. “When you delegate work to a member of the team, your job is to clearly frame success and describe the objectives.” Steven Sinofsky


51. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” ~ Peter Drucker


52. “All leaders are readers.” - Jim Rohn


53. “Greatness is consistency driven by a deep love of the work.”- Maria Popova


54. “If you don’t have an evolving growth strategy, then you and your team are just driving around the block. You may be doing well, but you’re not going anywhere.”


55. “You don’t need a title to be a leader.” —Unknown


56. “Practice Golden Rule Management in everything you do. Manage others the way you would like to be managed.” Brian Tracy


57. “The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.” – Hesiod, 8th Century BC Greek poet


58. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” – Aristotle


59. “Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.”


60. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” General Dwight Eisenhower


61. “Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men–the other 999 follow women.” Groucho Marx


62. “If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re certainly not taking enough business and career chances."


63. “A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.” ~ Zig Ziglar


64. “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” —Tom Landry, former Dallas Cowboys coach


65. Visionary leaders help people to see how their work fits into the big picture, lending people a clear sense not just that what they do matters, but also why. -Daniel Goleman, Primal Leadership


66. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” Jim Rohn


67. “To me, leadership is about encouraging people. It’s about stimulating them. It’s about enabling them to achieve what they can achieve – and to do that with a purpose”- Christine Lagarde


68. “Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas?” Margaret Thatcher


69. “Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in


70. “Success is an exception, so be exceptional.”


71. “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” ~ Ray Kroc


72. To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart. -John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership


73. “My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” - Thomas Paine


74. “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.”~ Indira Gandhi


75. “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”- Buddha


76. “Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.” - George Patton


77. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


78. “One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.”


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


80. “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.” - Rosalynn Carter


81. “Stay connected to feel empathy, compassion, and understanding for yourself and others.” Vanessa Tucker


82. “Don’t be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.” Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense


83. “More leaders have been made by accident, circumstance, sheer grit, or will than have been made by all the leadership courses put together.” - Warren Bennis


84. “To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” – Pat Riley, President of the Miami Heat and former Lakers coach


85. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” —Maya Angelou, civil rights activist and poet


86. “The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.” —Faye Wattleton, American reproductive rights activist


87. “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


88. “If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you.” ~ Indra Nooyi


89. “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” – Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India


90. “If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.” Tom Rath


91. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” ~ Woodrow Wilson


92. “You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go.


93. “To be a leader, you have to make people want to follow you, and nobody wants to follow someone who doesn’t know where he is going.” – Joe Namath, former New York Jets quarterback


94. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."


95. “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci, scientist, artist, astronomer, and mathematician


96. “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” Ralph Waldo Emerson


97. “In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” Warren Buffet


98. “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” Brian Tracy


99. “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” —Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and former U.S. President


100. “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


101. “Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.”


102. “Set and maintain high standards. If you have to be hard on people, do it with love and a genuine wish for them to improve. Praise people when they hit the standard. Sam Altman


103. “Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” —Mary D. Poole, author


104. “Leading people is like cooking. Don’t stir too much. It annoys the


105. “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. President


106. Great vision without great people is irrelevant. -Jim Collins, Good to Great


107. “I think realizing that you’re not alone, that you are standing with millions of your sisters around the world is vital.” - Malala Yousafzai


108. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others”- Bill Gates


109. “I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist."


110. “Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.”- Warren Bennis


111. Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. – Theodore Roosevelt


112. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.”


113. “Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” ~ Michelle Obama


114. “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”


115. “Always choose the future over the past. What do we do now?” Brain Tracy


116. “Without being willing to fail and continually get back up again, I would never have been able to find the right market and establish my product within it."


117. “You are never too small to make a difference.”


118. “If there is no wind, row.” – Latin Proverb


119. “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa, Catholic nun and saint


120. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


121. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” ~ Winston Churchill


122. “Whatever you are, be a good one.”


123. “A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” J.P. Morgan


124. “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” —Malala Yousafzai, activist


125. “I think it’s a combination of personality traits that have helped me to succeed. Not only hard work - but patience, sacrifice and choosing my battles have all helped me to reach the point in my career to which I aspired, in a company I admired.”


126. “Hire character. Train skill.” —Peter Schutz, former president and CEO of Porsche


127. “One of the most important things for any leader is to never let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution.” – Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM


128. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” —Bill Bradley, American politician and former professional basketball player


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


130. “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.” – Alexander the Great, former king of Macedonia


131. Leadership is not a license to do less; it is a responsibility to do more. -Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last


132. “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked;


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


134. 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. – Jim Rohn


135. “When you put together deep knowledge about a subject that intensely matters to you, charisma happens. You gain courage to share your passion, and when you do that, folks follow.” Jerry Porras


136. “Leadership is your ability to hide your panic from others.”


137. “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. Oprah Winfrey


138. “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.”- Ronald Reagan


139. “Always remember, Son, the best boss is the one who bosses the least. Whether it’s cattle, or horses, or men; the least government is the best government.” Ralph Moody


140. “You either run with lions or walk with sheep.” - Matshona Dhliwayo


141. “I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” —Ginni Rometty, Executive Chairman of IBM


142. “If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.” Brad Szollose


143. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that count."


144. “Leaders set high standards. refuse to tolerate mediocrity or poor performance.” Brian Tracy


145. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” Bill Gates


146. People commit to causes, not to plans. -James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner, A Leader's Legacy


147. A leader leads by example, not by force. -Sun Tzu, The Art of War


148. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson


149. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” —Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister


150. “The best leadership advice I have ever received? Listen more than you talk.” – Howard Schultz


151. “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.”


152. “The test of leadership is, is anything or anyone better because of you?” —Mark Sanborn, author, professional speaker, and entrepreneur


153. “There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust.” Klaus Balkenhol


154. “Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down.”


155. “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” W. Clement Stone


156. “Rarely are opportunities presented to you in a perfect way. In a nice little box with a yellow bow on top. 'Here, open it, it's perfect. You'll love it.' Opportunities – the good ones – are messy, confusing and hard to recognize. They're risky. They challenge you.”- Susan Wojcicki


157. “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.” - Warren Bennis


158. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” —John Maxwell, author, speaker, and pastor


159. “Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.”~ Harold Geneen


160. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” —William Arthur Ward, writer


161. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama, former U.S. President


162. “The glue that holds all relationships together–including the relationship between the leader and the led–is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” Brian Tracy


163. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”- Thomas Edison


164. No matter how vital we think the role of leadership in the rise of a mass movement, there is no doubt that the leader cannot create the conditions which make the rise of a movement possible. He cannot conjure a movement out of the void. There has to be an eagerness to follow and obey, and an intense dissatisfaction with things as they are, before movement and leader can make their appearance. -Eric Hoffer, The True Believer


165. The day you are not solving problems or are not up to your butt in problems is probably a day you are no longer leading. If your desk is clean and no one is bringing you problems, you should be very worried. It means that people don't think you can solve them or don't want to hear about them. Or, far worse, it means they don't think you care. -Colin Powell, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership


166. “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.” ~ Alexander The Great


167. “Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness


168. “Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership


169. “It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State


170. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal.” —Ben Carson, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development


171. “A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can’t.” - Jack Ma


172. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – President John Quincy Adams, former U.S. President


173. “To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.” ~ Andre Malraux


174. “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” – Tom Landry, former Dallas Cowboys coach


175. “If you do every job like you’re going to do it for the rest of your life, that’s when you get noticed.” - Mary Barra


176. “Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club


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


178. “Leadership is an action, not a position.” —Donald McGannon, broadcasting executive


179. “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.” - Leroy Eimes


180. “The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” – Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom


181. “Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors.” —Jocko Willink, American author, podcaster, and retired United States Navy Officer


182. “Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality.” Warren G. Bennis


183. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” ~ Warren Bennis


184. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” – Albert Schweitzer


185. “Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment and it comes with plenty of failure along the way.” - Barack Obama


186. You have any suggestions, make them. I'm in charge but humble. No need to salute when you see me.' Fraser said, 'Mind if we snicker every once in a while behind your back?' 'Hell, no,' I said. 'Everyone else does.' -Robert B. Parker, The Widening Gyre


187. “The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the


188. “Leadership is something you earn, something you’re chosen for. You can’t come in yelling, ‘I’m your leader!’ If it happens, it’s because the other guys respect you.” —Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback, Pittsburgh Steelers


189. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”– Woodrow Wilson, former U.S. President


190. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon


191. “Win over an egoist by showing him respect, a wise person by truth, and a crazy person by letting him behave in an insane manner.”- Chanakya


192. “You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” Carl Jung


193. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ~ John F. Kennedy


194. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you


195. “You need to spend political capital - be unafraid to introduce people, compliment somebody when it’s deserved and stand up for something you really believe in, rather than just go with the flow.”


196. “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”


197. “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” —Dianne Feinstein, Senior United States Senator


198. The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. – Eric Hoffer


199. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” ― Henry Kissinger, former U.S. National Security Advisor and Secretary of State


200. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” - Barack Obama


201. “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground”. – Theodore Roosevelt, former U.S. President


202. “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” - Sheryl Sandberg


203. “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”


204. “‘Never look back’ is my philosophy.”- Helen Clark


205. “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success;


206. “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” ~ Aristotle


207. “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.” Ronald Reagan


208. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – President Abraham Lincoln, former U.S. President


209. Many people think they want things, but they don't really have the strength, the discipline. They are weak. – Frank Lloyd Wright


210. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” ~ Stephen Covey


211. “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


212. “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, philosopher and writer


213. “Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.” ~ Steve Jobs


214. “I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.” Robert E. Lee


215. “THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP IS SIMPLE: DO WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. PAINT A PICTURE OF THE FUTURE. GO THERE. PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW.”


216. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”- Eleanor Roosevelt


217. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” John F. Kennedy


218. “Good leaders build products. Great leaders build cultures. Good leaders deliver results. Great leaders develop people. Good leaders have vision. Great leaders have values. Good leaders are role models at work. Great leaders are role models in life."


219. Quotes to Honor His Legacy


220. “Find the smartest people you can and surround yourself with them.” - Marissa Meyer


221. “Show me the man you honor and I will know what kind of man you are.” Thomas John Carlisle


222. “Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it … Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” David Ogilvy


223. “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” —Max Lucado, author and pastor


224. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” Ralph Nader


225. “Leadership is the ability to guide others without force into a direction or decision that leaves them still feeling empowered and accomplished.” —Lisa Cash Hanson, author and entrepreneur


226. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” – Andrew Carnegie


227. “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.” Rosalynn Carter


228. “Don’t blow off another’s candle for it won’t make yours shine brighter.” Jaachynma N.E. Agu


229. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” - Confucius


230. “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” ~ Peter F. Drucker


231. “The outward expression of empathy is courtesy.” Stewart Butterfield


232. “Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do.” - Max De Pree


233. “A star wants to see himself rise to the top. A leader wants to see those around him rise to the top.” Simon Sinek


234. “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.” - Rosalynn Carter


235. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut


236. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.


237. “Leaders are innovative, entrepreneurial, and future-oriented. They focus on getting the job done.” Brian Tracy


238. “We need to accept that we don’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes. Understand that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” —Arianna Huffington, founder & CEO, Thrive Global


239. “It is absolutely necessary…for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.” George Washington


240. “Do not be afraid to make decisions. Do not be afraid to make mistakes.”


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


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


243. “Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are


244. “If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings — and put compensation as a carrier behind it — you almost don’t have to manage them.” Jack Welch


245. A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are. – Ara Parasheghian


246. “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


247. “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” Ken Blanchard


248. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” Jessica Jackley


249. When you break through a glass ceiling, you're going to get cut, and it's going to hurt. -Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold


250. “No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.”- Pope Francis


251. “You are never too small to make a difference.” —Greta Thunberg, environmental activist


252. “If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.” Henry David Thoreau


253. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” ~ Ralph Nader


254. “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 F. Drucker, Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author


255. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” - Seth Godin


256. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”


257. “To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’” ~ Lao Tzu


258. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” Martin Luther King, Jr.


259. “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.” Oprah Winfrey


260. “Being a leader is making the people you love hate you a little more each day.” - Patrick Ness


261. “If you really want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.” Richard Branson


262. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. -Peter F. Drucker, Management


263. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” —Warren Buffett, investor


264. “To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.” - Friedrich Nietzsche


265. “There is a troublesome humor some men have, that if they may not lead, they will not follow; but had rather a thing were never done, than not done their own way, tho’ other ways very desirable.” – William Penn, early Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania


266. “Leadership can’t be fabricated. If it is fabricated and rehearsed,


267. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” ~ Ralph Nader


268. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you


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


270. “Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone’s following you.” ~ Henry Gilmer


271. “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” Andrew Carnegie


272. “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective


273. “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ~ Edith Wharton


274. “I believe in a quiet, strong and grounded leadership. I think some of the best leaders are those whose work is widely known and respected but who, themselves, are relatively unknown.” —Rachael Chong, founder and CEO of Catchafire


275. “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” ~ Arnold Glasow


276. “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” - Diogenes


277. “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” – J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series


278. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan, Hall of Fame basketball superstar


279. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States


280. “But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” - Carl Sagan


281. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt


282. “People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” - Thomas Sowell


283. “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” – Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator


284. “Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.” ~ Oprah Winfrey


285. “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.” Ronald Reagan


286. “The key responsibility of leadership is to think about the future. No one else can do it for you.” Brian Tracy


287. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt


288. “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, entrepreneur and author


289. Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time. -Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik


290. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Bill George


291. “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” Steve Jobs


292. “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” Mary Tyler Moore


293. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” —Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist


294. “I learned that things are never as complicated as we imagine them to be. It is only our arrogance which seeks to find complicated answers to simple problems.” – Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner


295. “Great leaders do not desire to lead but to serve.” ~ Myles Munroe


296. If you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead. Even the highest mountain had animals that step on it. -Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World


297. “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia


298. “A leader takes people where they would never go on their own.” Hans Finzel


299. “A boss has the title, a leader has the people.” - Simon Sinek


300. “Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.” ~ Pete Hoekstra


301. Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are. -Steve Jobs, from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson


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


303. “Leadership is not just about giving energy… it’s unleashing other people’s energy.” - Paul Polman


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


305. “Great masters neither want nor need your worship. Your greatest gift to them and yourself is to emulate their divinity by claiming it as your own.” - Alan Cohen


306. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” - Theodore Roosevelt


307. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas A. Edison


308. “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.” – Ronald Reagan, former U.S. President


309. “The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.” Bill Taylor


310. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”


311. “Great leaders delegate and nurture future leaders.” ~ Invajy


312. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” ~ Jack Welch


313. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” ~ Henry Ford


314. “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, economist and diplomat


315. “The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.” —Warren Bennis, American scholar, organizational consultant, and author


316. “Elicit” vs. “Illicit”: What’s the Difference?


317. “Entrepreneurial leadership requires the ability to move quickly when opportunity presents itself.” Brian Tracy


318. “A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs.” ~ Robert Townsend


319. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”


320. “I think that my leadership style is to get people to


321. “You can and should set your own limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect.”


322. “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” – Malala Yousafzai, activist


323. “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” ~ Diogenes of Sinope


324. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou


325. “Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.” General Colin Powell


326. A respectful dialogue with one's opponent almost invariably goes further than a harangue outside his or her window. If you want to change someone's mind, you must understand what need shapes his or her opinion. To prevail, you must first listen. -Sonia Sotomayor, My Beloved World


327. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again,


328. “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”- Warren Buffet


329. “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.” - Sheryl Sandberg


330. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” – Stephen Covey, author and educator


331. “Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share pain.” ~ Max Depree


332. “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 Maxwell


333. “I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal.” – Ben Carson, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development


334. In the end, you should always do the right thing, even if it's hard. -Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song


335. “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders, and continually develops them.” John Maxwell


336. The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones. -Brandon Sanderson, The Alloy of Law


337. “It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” Adlai E. Stevenson II


338. “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Peter F. Drucker


339. “Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it roll right off you.”


340. In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders. -Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In


341. “The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.” Brian Tracy


342. “The key to success is action.” Brian Tracy


343. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German poet, playwright, and novelist


344. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men


345. “Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention, and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.” Edward de Bono


346. “Education is the mother of leadership.” —Wendell Willkie, lawyer


347. “The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.”


348. “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” —Warren Buffett, investor


349. “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.” – Rosalynn Carter, former first lady of the United States


350. “If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you.” – Indra Nooyi, Pepsi CEO


351. “Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front.” - Nelson Mandela


352. “Learning is not a one-time event or a periodic luxury. Great leaders in great companies recognize that the ability to constantly learn, innovate, and improve is vital to their success.” Amy Edmondson


353. “It’s all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” - Queen Elizabeth II


354. “We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” - Whoopi Goldberg


355. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?” —Ayn Rand, author


356. “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly."


357. “A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”


358. “Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led.” Ross Perot


359. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” Albert Schweitzer


360. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” – Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company


361. “I’ve always subscribed to the belief that the best leader is not one who has the most followers, but one who creates the most leaders. I strive every day — and in every program and offering we have at Integrous Women — to create more conscious, confident, and soulful leaders who, in return, will build a better world for all.”


362. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


363. “Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.” —Margaret Wheatley, writer, teacher, and speaker


364. “Good leaders must first become good servants.” – Robert Greenleaf


365. A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. – John Maxwell


366. “Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people.


367. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”- Mahatma Gandhi


368. “Magic happens when you connect people. I credit much of my success to always making it a point to truly get to know people and help them whenever I can. It’s become the backbone of our firm’s success. Women founders in particular are often highly skilled at making connections that can help advance their businesses.”


369. “In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.” - Tina Fey


370. “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” George Patton


371. “The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.” Brandon Sanderson


372. 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. – Nelson Mandela


373. Most of us, in ways that we are not entirely aware of, automatically associate leadership ability with imposing physical stature. We have a sense of what a leader is supposed to look like, and that stereotype is so powerful that when someone fits it, we simply become blind to other considerations. -Malcolm Gladwell, Blink


374. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right


375. Perhaps the ultimate test of a leader is not what you are able to do in the here and now—but instead what continues to grow long after you're gone. -Tom Rath, Strengths Based Leadership


376. “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.”- Buddha


377. “I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than


378. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” - Abraham Lincoln


379. “All leaders are readers.” —Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur


380. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. -Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope


381. “It’s okay to admit what you don’t know. It’s okay to ask for help. And it’s more than okay to listen to the people you lead – in fact, it’s essential.” —Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors


382. “We cannot drive people; we must direct their development…The general policy of the past has been to drive, but the era of force must give way to that of knowledge, and the policy of the future will be to teach and to lead, to the advantage of all concerned.“ – Henry Gantt, creator of the Gantt Chart


383. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”


384. “Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” ~ Henry Ford


385. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use


386. “It only takes one person to mobilize a community and inspire change. Even if you don’t feel like you have it in you, it’s in you. You have to believe in yourself. People will see your vision and passion and follow you.” Teyonah Parris


387. “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.” —Stephen King, author


388. “To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” Pat Riley


389. “In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.” Seth Godin


390. “To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


391. “My own definition of leadership is this: the capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.” —General Montgomery, British Army Officer


392. “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must


393. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.”


394. “The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.” - Brandon Sanderson


395. “Leadership distilled down to 3 words: Make a difference.”- Robin Sharma


396. “When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte


397. “The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders


398. “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” Steve Jobs


399. “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence, and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” —Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook


400. “A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” —Nelson Mandela, revolutionary, statesman, and philanthropist


401. “Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration.” ~ Robin S. Sharma


402. Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizen should be: partisans but never zealots, respectors of the facts which attend each situation but never benders of those facts, uncomfortable in positions of leadership but rarely unable to turn down a responsibility once it has been offered... or thrust upon them. They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power. -Stephen King, The Stand


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


404. “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” Publilius Syrus


405. “A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.” ~ Joel Barker


406. “If ‘leadership’ has come to be known as something much bigger than us, aligned to changing the world, then we are spending way too much time celebrating things that hardly anyone can do and not celebrating things we can do every day.”- Drew Dudley, founder of Day One Leadership


407. He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command. -Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince


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


409. “No one else is going to build the life you want for you. No one else will even be able to completely understand it. The most amazing souls will show up to cheer you along the way, but this is your game. Make a pact to be in it with yourself for the long haul, as your own supportive friend at every step along the way.”


410. Continuous learning leads to continuous improvement. Commit yourself to advancing your knowledge, skills, and expertise. The business environment is quickly changing, and your understanding of the leading practices, thinking, and emerging tools will help you manage for better results. Be a lifelong student.


411. “Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.” ~ Douglas MacArthur


412. “To achieve something meaningful, you need to know where you are heading and be willing to train hard to get there.” - Arianna Huffington


413. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” —Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader and emperor


414. “Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.”


415. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” William Falkner


416. “True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” —Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook


417. “Leadership is hard to define, and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.”


418. Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once. – Drew Houston


419. “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” ~ Margaret Fuller


420. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”- Dr. Seuss


421. 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 Maxwell


422. “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. President


423. “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower


424. “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”


425. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


426. “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric


427. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” —Barack Obama, former U.S. President


428. “When people talk, listen completely.” ~ Ernest Hemingway


429. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” William Arthur Ward


430. “Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common.” - Melinda Gates


431. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” ~ Brian Tracy


432. “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.”


433. “Leadership distilled down to 3 words: Make a difference.” —Robin Sharma, Canadian writer


434. “You are judged in this world by how well you bring things to an end. A messy or incomplete conclusion can reverberate for years to come.” - Robert Greene


435. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” —Jack Welch


436. “One of the most important things for any leader is to never let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution.” —Ginni Rometty, Executive Chairman of IBM


437. “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


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


439. “If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself.” ~ Jim Rohn


440. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”- Leo Tolstoy


441. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” - Steve Jobs


442. “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.” —Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady, American writer, and activist


443. “If you don’t believe in yourself, why is anyone else going to believe in you.” – Tom Brady, New England Patriots quarterback


444. True leaders... do not make people into followers, but into other leaders. -John Holt, Teach Your Own


445. “A leader is a dealer in hope.”


446. “In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” – Harry Truman, former U.S. President


447. “Don’t follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you.” ~ Margaret Thatcher


448. “A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.” ~ Polybius


449. “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”~ John Buchan


450. “You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.” Ken Kesey


451. “If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.” - Brad Szollose


452. “Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.” Reed Markham


453. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” —Muriel Strode, poet


454. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” —Brian Tracy, Canadian-American motivational public speaker


455. “Leaders walk a fine line between self-confidence and humility.” - Stanley McChrystal


456. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. – Bill Gates


457. “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” ~ John Maxwell


458. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” ~ Kenneth Blanchard


459. “The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.” - Sheryl Sandberg


460. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart, American aviation pioneer


461. We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced. -Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala


462. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.


463. “Earn your leadership every day.”


464. Everyone admires the bold; no one admires the timid. -Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power


465. A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them. -Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension


466. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself,


467. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. – Amelia Earhart


468. “True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that


469. “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born."


470. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” - William Arthur Ward


471. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” ~ Arnold H. Glasow


472. “Leadership is an action, not a position.” Donald McGannon


473. “Forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion.” - Oprah Winfrey


474. “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” John Maxwell


475. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou


476. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln


477. “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.”- Rosalynn Carter


478. “To add value to others, one must first value others.” ~ John Maxwell


479. “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.” - Toni Morrison


480. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller, author, activist, and lecturer


481. “Earn your leadership every day.” - Michael Jordan


482. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle, Greek philosopher


483. “I never saw myself as an individual who had


484. “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” - Dalai Lama


485. “A leader operating in enemy territory should always project positivity and optimism.”- Naval Ravikant


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


487. “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”- John F. Kennedy


488. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.”- Coco Chanel


489. “Doing what is right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what is right.”~ Lyndon B. Johnson


490. “The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you 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


491. “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” —Sara Blakely, founder & CEO of Spanx


492. “Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.” - John Naisbitt


493. Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. -Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man


494. “A year from now you will wish you had started today.” —Karen Lamb, author


495. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” Stephen Covey


496. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson


497. “In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” —Harry Truman, former U.S. President


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


499. You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. - Ken Kesey


500. “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi


501. “No one is going to make you a leader. Take the reins, create your own opportunity, and build the career that you deserve.” Devin Bramhall


502. “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”


503. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” - Oprah Winfrey


504. “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes


505. “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”- Steve Jobs


506. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” - Bill Bradley


507. “Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” - Mary D. Poole


508. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! -George Orwell, Animal Farm


509. “The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.” Bob Marley


510. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.”


511. “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in


512. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” - Plato


513. “We need to accept that we don’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes. Understand that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”


514. “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”


515. “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” —Isaac Newton, English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer


516. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou, poet and civil rights activist


517. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” Brian Tracy


518. “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” Diogenes of Sinope


519. “You can be a leader in your workplace, your neighborhood, or your family, all without having a title.” —Travis Bradberry, author


520. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” - John F. Kennedy


521. “Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas?” – Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom


522. “Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.”


523. “He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.” – Niccolò Machiavelli, philosopher and writer


524. “You don’t get any medal for trying something, you get medals for results."


525. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” Eleanor Roosevelt


526. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” ~ Bill Bradley


527. “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” ~ John Zenger


528. Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers. - Robin S. Sharma


529. “The hardest thing about being a leader is demonstrating or showing vulnerability. When the leader demonstrates vulnerability and sensibility and brings people together, the team wins.” - Howard Schultz


530. “Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes.”


531. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you’ll be criticized anyway.”


532. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.


533. “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” - Albert Einstein


534. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”- Henry David Thoreau


535. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” ~ Theodore M. Hesburgh


536. “A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he


537. Leadership is not about control. Leadership is about influence... If you have influence with at least one person, that makes you a leader. -Ford Taylor, Relactional Leadership


538. “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” Nancy D. Solomon


539. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” - Henry Adams


540. “Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” Napoleon Hill


541. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupry


542. “You manage things; you lead people.” - Grace Hopper


543. “Leadership is like third grade: it means repeating the significant things.” - Max De Pree


544. “A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” – Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa


545. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. – African proverb


546. “Leaders never use the word failure. They look upon setbacks as learning experiences.” Brian Tracy


547. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” ~ Harvey S. Firestone


548. “Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about


549. “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


550. Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation. – William Arthur Ward


551. “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."


552. “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” - Isaac Newton


553. “It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” - Adlai Stevenson


554. “There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.” —Warren Bennis, American scholar, organizational consultant, and author


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


556. “A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” – Joe DiMaggio, former New York Yankees outfielder & Hall of Fame Baseball Player


557. “It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” – Jocko Willink


558. “Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way” Ronald Reagan


559. “We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” Whoopi Goldberg


560. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


561. A leader... is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind. -Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom


562. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” Bill Bradley


563. “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another.” John C. Maxwell


564. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”


565. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally


566. “In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” - Eric Hoffer


567. “As a leader, you should always start with where people are before you try to take them where you want them to go.” Jim Rohn


568. “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.” —Toni Morrison, author


569. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” ~ Dale Carnegie


570. “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. ” – Margaret Fuller


571. “When you delegate tasks, you create followers. When you delegate authority, you create leaders.” Craig Groeschel


572. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer, poet, and aristocrat


573. “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I”. They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” – Peter Drucker


574. “Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” Patrick Lencioni


575. “Leadership is not about men in suits. It is a way of life for those who know who they are and are willing to be their best to create the life they want to live.” —Kathleen Schafer, CEO of Human Being Store


576. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” —Gen. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State


577. “The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.” ~ Winston Churchill


578. Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. – Harold S. Geneen


579. Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging. -Brené Brown, Dare to Lead


580. “A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others so that they may have the strength to stand on their own.” Beth Revis


581. “I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered


582. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Nelson Mandela


583. “Part of leadership is knowing when to go ahead with a decision that’s within your authority because you’re really convinced it’s the right thing, even if other people don’t understand it at that point."


584. “Power isn’t control at all – power is strength, and giving that strength


585. 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


586. “It is well to respect the leader. Learn from him. Observe him. Study him. But don’t worship him. Believe you can surpass. Believe you can go beyond. Those who harbor the second-best attitude are invariably second-best doers.”- David J. Schwartz


587. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” Dwight D. Eisenhower


588. Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it. -Simon Sinek, Start with Why


589. “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


590. “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it. Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.” Martin Luther King, Jr.


591. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein, physicist


592. “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence." - Sheryl Sandberg


593. “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness,


594. “A leader should be able to foresee crisis situations and be proactive” ~ Invajy


595. “Emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotion to increase your own and others’ success.”


596. “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.”- Peter F. Drucker


597. “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of


598. “Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” ~ Peter F. Drucker


599. “Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.” Oprah Winfrey


600. “Management is doing the right thing; leadership is doing the right things.” ~ Peter F. Drucker


601. “I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.” Lao Tzu


602. “Leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex moral relationship between people based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good.”


603. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” - Martin Luther King Jr


604. “As a leader, it’s a major responsibility on your shoulders to practice the behavior you want others to follow.” —Himanshu Bhatia, CEO of Chesterfield


605. “I’m all for ambition and stretch goals. I set them for myself.


606. “The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.” —Padmasree Warrior, CEO & founder of Fable


607. “The three ‘C’s’ of leadership are consideration, caring, and courtesy. Be polite to everyone.” Brian Tracy


608. “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” - Publilius Syrus


609. “Leadership is about the team - the culture they keep and embrace, it’s about empathy for your customers, clients, employees and the communities where you do business, it’s about doing the right thing for the right reasons, being confident enough to take risks and responsible enough to think of those who your decisions and risks may affect.”


610. Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary and highly practical. -John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership


611. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~ Winston Churchill


612. “Abundance is not about providing everyone on this planet with a life of luxury—rather it’s about providing all with a life of possibility.”- Peter Diamandis


613. “No man is good enough to govern another man


614. “Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” – Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States


615. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” Theodore Roosevelt


616. “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”


617. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin


618. “Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience.” James Freeman Clark


619. “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision."


620. “One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.” —Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand


621. “No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become leaders. So the point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, to use yourself completely – all your skills, gifts and energies – in order to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing. You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and to enjoy the process of becoming.” —Warren Bennis, American scholar, organizational consultant, and author


622. “Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” - Thomas Jefferson


623. “The really expert riders of horses let the horse know immediately who is in control, but then guide the horse with loose reins and seldom use the spurs.” Sandra Day O’Connor


624. “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, economist and diplomat


625. “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


626. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” —Thomas A. Edison, American inventor


627. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work."


628. “Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.” ~ Harold S. Geneen


629. “A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.” M.D. Arnold


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


631. “Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. John F. Kennedy


632. “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character.


633. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt


634. “You manage things; you lead people.” ~ Grace Murray Hopper


635. “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” ~ Margaret Thatcher


636. The knowledge of how little you can do alone teaches you humility. -Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living


637. “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a