Leadership Quotes and Proverbs

Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence
A study at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management found that compassion and building teamwork will be two of the most important characteristics business leaders will need for success a decade from now.

Doc Childre and Bruce Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence
Self-security will be a hallmark of the leaders and exceptional organizations of the future. Self-security in an individual or a system brings a high ratio of coherence. Leaders or organizations with self-security can push power and authority downstream and develop centers of innovation and excellence at all levels of the organization.

The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, The Leader of the Future, (c) 1996
Leaders grow; they are not made.

Christina Baldwin
To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against.

Robert K. Greenleaf
The only test of leadership is that somebody follows.

Lance Secretan, Industry Week, 10/12/98
Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration—of oneself and of others. Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine.

More than anything else today, followers believe they are part of a system, a process that lacks heart. If there is one thing a leader can do to connect with followers at a human, or better still a spiritual level, it is to become engaged with them fully, to share experiences and emotions, and to set aside the processes of leadership we have learned by rote.

Unknown
Blessed is the leader who seeks the best for those he serves.

Peter F. Drucker
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.

Robert L. Payton
American philanthropic custom owes much to leadership by business and professional people.

Lao Tzu
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him....But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did it ourselves.

Chinese proverb
An army of a thousand is easy to find, but, ah, how difficult to find a general.

Lao Tzu
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.

Donald H. McGannon
Leadership is action, not position.

Fred Smith
Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated.

Anon
A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.

Mary D. Poole
Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.

Marian Anderson
Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

James L. Fisher
The main characteristics of effective leadership are intelligence, integrity or loyalty, mystique, humor, discipline, courage, self sufficieny and confidence.

Harold J. Seymour
Leaders are the ones who keep faith with the past, keep step with the present, and keep the promise to posterity.

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

Harold J. Seymour
When the leadership is right and the time is right, the people can always be counted upon to follow—to the end and at all costs.

Charles deGaulle
A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.

Unkown
A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.

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

Tacitus
Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader.

Tom Landry
Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.

Max DePree
Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do. The visible signs of artful leadership are expressed, ultimately, in its practice.

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

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

Edgar Powell
No organization is stronger than the quality of its leadership, or ever extends its constituency far beyond the degree to which its leadership is representative.

James L. Fisher
Leadership is the special quality which enables people to stand up and pull the rest of us over the horizon.

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

Manual on military leadership
Good leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience.

Chinese proverb
He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.

Donald H. McGannon
Leadership is action, not position.

Bernd Brecher
There are many elements to a campaign.Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.

Anthony T. Dadovano
A good leader is not the person who does things right, but the person who finds the right things to do.

Talleyrand
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.

Walter Lippmann
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.

Abigail Adams
Great necessities call forth great leaders.

Charles S. Lauer
Leaders don't force people to follow—they invite them on a journey.

Harold S. Hulbert
Children need love especially when they don't deserve it.

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

Jesse Jackson
Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

Knute Rockne - Professional Football Coach
I have to get the most energy out of a man and have discovered that it cannot be done if he hates another man. Hate blocks his energy and he isn't up to par until he eliminates it and develops a friendly feeling...(towards all his teammates.)

John Maxwell
The first step to leadership is servanthood.

Max DePree (The Art of Leadership)
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.