Being a strong leader can mean the different between creating a successful team or business and having to deal with one that is failing. These leadership quotes will hopefully help you to see what it really takes to be a great leader. Many of these quotes are from people who are great leaders themselves. If you’d like to recommend any quotes about leadership, feel free to add them in the comments section down below. Enjoy!
“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.”
– Arnold Glasow
“We could all use a little coaching. When you’re playing the game, it’s hard to think of everything.”
– Jim Rohn
“Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.”
– Gilbert Amelio
“Men can be stimulated to show off their good qualities to the leader who seems to think they have good qualities.”
– John Richelsen
“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
– Margaret Cousins
“Let your life mean something. Become an inspiration to others so that they may try to do more and to become more than they are today.”
– Thomas D. Willhite
“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.”
– Malcolm Muggeridge
“A smile while giving honest criticism can make the difference between resentment and reform.”
– Philip Steinmetz
“Tell me, I will forget. Show me, I may remember. Involve me, I will understand.”
– Chinese Proverb
“A man who wishes to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”
– Jack Lee
“To use power wisely is the final test of leadership. Thus, the first rule in the game of power (or life) and, in fact, the only hard and fast rule in the entire game is: POWER MUST BE THE SERVANT; IT MUST NOT BE THE MASTER!”
– Thomas D. Willhite
“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.”
– Lance Secretan
“They may forget what you said, they may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Carl W. Buecher
“If you want happiness, create it now. Find the joy and beauty of this moment. Give yourself permission to be happy now. Give yourself permission to be beautiful now. Decide at this moment to be a leader, and you have become one. It can be that fast. “Taking responsibility” is not difficult. It is the “deciding to take responsibility” that is hard.”
– Thomas D. Willhite
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or to be the mirror that reflects it.”
– Edith Wharton
“We should seize every opportunity to give encouragement. Encouragement is oxygen to the soul. The days are always dark enough. There is no need for us to emphasize the fact by spreading further gloom.”
– George M. Adams
“Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.”
– Henry Ford
“A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.”
– Ralph Lauren
“Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon them and to let them know that you trust them.”
– Booker T. Washington
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
– John Quincy Adams
“Having a role model in life is a great thing to have; one who provides us with direction and inspiration. However, we will forever be restricted by that person’s limitations if we live within their boundaries. Be influenced, but set your own standards and develop your own principals, if you are ever to live beyond someone else’s dreams.”
– Jason Shahan
“The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have.”
– Brian Koslow
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
– George Burns
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
– Harold R. McAlindon
“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”
– Mother Teresa
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
– John Quincy Adams
“Leaders aren’t born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”
– Vince Lombardi
“A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn’t go by yourself.”
– Joel Barker
There's always a choice for the way we do our jobs, even when there's no choice for the job itself.