Sometimes you need a little inspiration. Here are 101 inspiring leadership quotes from the some of the best — leaders who have been in your shoes and have succeeded. Check them out to see which leadership quotes will inspire you.
1
“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and
let them surprise you with their results.”
— George S. Patton Jr.
2
“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
3
“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting.
If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.”
— Tom Northup
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4
“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”
— Steve Jobs
5
“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
6
“He that thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.”
— John C. Maxwell
7
“Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”
— Colin Powell
8
“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
9
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
— Peter F. Drucker
10
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
— John F. Kennedy
11
“It’s not about you. It’s about them.”
— Clint Eastwood
12
“The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.”
–– Ken Blanchard
13
“To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
14
“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
15
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
— Albert Schweitzer
16
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you
want done because he wants to do it.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
17
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
18
“He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”
— Aristotle
19
“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
20
“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
21
“I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered
a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn’t.”
— Dee Dee Myers
22
“A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.”
— Stephen King
23
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
24
“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
25
“Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.”
— Bill Bradley
26
“Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.”
— Douglas MacArthur
27
“Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.”
— George S. Patton Jr.
28
“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
29
“True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but
about those they serve. It is not about exalting themselves
but about lifting others up.”
— Sheri L. Dew
30
“He who has great power should use it lightly.”
— Seneca
31
“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about
one life influencing another.”
— John C. Maxwell
32
“Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are
necessary to leadership.”
— Donald Rumsfeld
33
“I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than
an army of 100 lions led by a sheep”
— Talleyrand
34
“One person with commitment accomplishes more than
a thousand with an opinion.”
— Orrin Woodward
35
“When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.”
— Winston S. Churchill
36
“Leading people is like cooking. Don’t stir too much. It annoys the
ingredients. And spoils the food.”
— Rick Julian
37
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of
principle, stand like a rock.”
— Thomas Jefferson
38
“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough
ahead to motivate them.”
— John C. Maxwell
39
“Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.”
— Seth Godin
40
“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
41
“What you do has far greater impact than what you say.”
— Stephen Covey
42
“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
43
“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
44
“Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved,
getting other players involved. It’s being able to take it
as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going
to get respect from the players.”
— Larry Bird
45
“A man who wants to lead the orchestra must
turn his back on the crowd.”
— Max Lucado
46
“Without initiative, leaders are simply workers in leadership positions.”
— Bo Bennett
47
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.”
— Thomas Sowell
48
“Earn your leadership every day.”
— Michael Jordan
49
“Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people.
Inventories can be managed but people must be led.”
— Ross Perot
50
“The growth and development of people is the
highest calling of leadership.”
— Harvey S. Firestone
51
“The function of leadership is to produce
more leaders, not more followers.”
— Ralph Nader
52
“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
53
“Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness,
but rather by the presence of clear strengths.”
— John Zenger
54
“Leadership is a choice, not a position.”
— Stephen Covey
55
“Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes.”
— Carly Fiorina
56
“Leadership can’t be fabricated. If it is fabricated and rehearsed,
you can’t fool the guys in the locker room. So when
you talk about leadership, it comes with performance.
Leadership comes with consistency.”
— Junior Seau
57
“To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership,
you have to be obsessed in some way.”
— Pat Riley
58
“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself,
or to get all the credit for doing it.”
— Andrew Carnegie
59
“Leaders think and talk about the solutions.
Followers think and talk about the problems.”
— Brian Tracy
60
“As we look ahead into the next century,
leaders will be those who empower others.”
— Bill Gates
61
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right
— for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
62
“Leadership is all about taking people on a journey. The challenge
is that most of the time, we are asking people to
follow us to places we ourselves have never been.”
— Andy Stanley
63
“Sometimes leadership is planting trees under
whose shade you’ll never sit.”
— Jennifer Granholm
64
“Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.”
— Woodrow Wilson
65
“There is a difference between listening and
waiting for your turn to speak.”
— Simon Sinek
66
“I never saw myself as an individual who had
any particular leadership powers.”
— Angela Davis
67
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success;
leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning
against the right wall.”
— Stephen Covey
68
“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character.
But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.”
— Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
69
“Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.”
— James Humes
70
“I’m all for ambition and stretch goals. I set them for myself.
But leadership isn’t the same as cheerleading. Believing
in something is a necessary but absolutely insufficient
condition for making it come true.”
— Margaret Heffernan
71
“I think that my leadership style is to get people to
fear staying in place, to fear not changing.”
— Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
72
“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”
— Benjamin Disraeli
73
“You manage things; you lead people.”
— Grace Murray Hopper
74
“Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people.
Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.”
— Simon Sinek
75
“A competent leader can get efficient service from poor
troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader
can demoralize the best of troops.”
— John J Pershing
76
“The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders
who are keeping their ears to the ground.”
— Winston Churchill
77
“A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
78
“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
79
“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked;
leadership is defined by results not attributes.”
— Peter Drucker
80
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”
— George Washington Carver
81
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again,
this time more intelligently.”
— Henry Ford
82
“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective
management is discipline, carrying it out.”
— Stephen Covey
83
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut
through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a
solution everybody can understand.”
— Colin Powell
84
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally
transform one million realities.”
— Maya Angelou
85
“Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership
must meet the moral challenge of the day.”
— Jesse Jackson
86
“Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.”
— Erskine Bowles
87
“Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in
the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God”
— Henry Kissinger
88
“Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down.”
— Grace Murray Hopper
89
“No man is good enough to govern another man
without that other’s consent.”
— Abraham Lincoln
90
“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in
other men, the conviction and the will to carry on.”
— Walter Lippman
91
“The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.”
— Kenneth H. Blanchard
92
“Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness
is doing the right thing.”
— Peter F. Drucker
93
“True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that
everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they
are pledged to do and doing it well.”
— Bill Owens
94
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
— Abraham Lincoln
95
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience
in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must
do the thing you think you cannot do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
96
“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.”
— J. Paul Getty
97
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
— George S. Patton Jr.
98
“Leadership is your ability to hide your panic from others.”
— Lao Tzu
99
“The greatest leaders build organizations that in the end, don’t need them.”
— Jim Collins
100
“If you cannot allow people to do their jobs … nobody with substance and creativity will work for you.”
— Condoleezza Rice
101
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
— Albert Schweitzer
