25 Leadership Quotes (What It Is and What It Isn’t)
In this article we’ll explore the wisdom of leaders from antiquity to our modern day. If we’re to be great leaders, we should have a solid idea of what leadership is. Sometimes, defining what leadership is helpful, too.
These quotes were curated to help you challenge your definition of leadership. Are you clear about what leadership is and what it’s not?
At the end of this article, I invite you to leave a comment. Please do.
Enjoy these quotes.
What Leadership Is
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
Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.
Sheryl Sandberg
The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.
Roy T. Bennett
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
Warren Bennis
Servant-leadership is all about making the goals clear and then rolling your sleeves up and doing whatever it takes to help people win. In that situation, they don’t work for you, you work for them.
Ken Blanchard
Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.
Senator Bill Bradley
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
President James Buchanan
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.
Stephen Covey
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
Max De Pree
Management is doing the right thing; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
President John Quincy Adams
Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
Warren Bennis
Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.
Seth Godin
The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Leadership is an action, not a position.
Donald McGannon
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
General Colin Powell
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
Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.
Margaret J. Wheatley
Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.
Jocko Willink
Leadership is liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible.
Max De Pree
What Leadership IS NOT
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.
Peter F. Drucker
Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration.
Robin S. Sharma
You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.
Aristotle
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
Well, where did you land? Has your personal definition of leadership changed? Did you identify with one or two of these quotes more than others? If so, leave a comment.
If you’re looking for more quotes for great leaders, click here.
Make it a great day!
