Leadership Quotes

120 Leadership Quotes

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Effective management without effective leadership is… like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.
Stephen Covey

Self-discipline is the first rule of all successful leadership.
Napoleon Hill

Women, in general, are not a part of the corruption of the past, so they can give a new kind of leadership, a new image for mankind. But if they are going to be bitter or vindictive they are not going to be able to do this. But they’re capable of tremendous compassion, love, and forgiveness, which, if they use it, can make this a better world. When you think of what some black women have gone through, and then look at how beautiful they still are! It is incredible that they still believe in the values of the race, that they have retained a love of justice, that they can still feel the deepest compassion, not only for themselves but for anybody who is oppressed; this is a kind of miracle, something we have that we must preserve and pass on.
Coretta Scott King

It was characteristic of my husband that in 1967 when confusion in the civil rights struggle abounded he would undertake a book titled Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? He not only took the responsibility for leadership, he toiled vigorously to offer discerning leadership.
Coretta Scott King

Leadership means that a group, large or small, is willing to entrust authority to a person who has shown judgment, wisdom, personal appeal, and proven competence.
Walt Disney

Leadership implies a strong faith or belief in something.
Walt Disney

Leadership is one of the things you cannot delegate. You either exercise it, or you abdicate it.
Roberto Goizueta

Leadership is the thing that wins battles. I have it, but I’ll be damned if I can define it.
George S Patton

The thing as I see it is to get a definite, simple plan quickly, and win by execution and careful detailed study of the tactical operation of lesser units. Execution if the thing, that and leadership.
George S Patton

Two top managers, who were already rich before the GM merger, refused to accept any shares because they wanted them to go to the younger people who didn't have any. The General Motors guys went crazy. They said, ''It must be nice to be so rich that you thumb your nose at several million dollars' worth of stock.'' I said, ''No, you're missing the point. It goes to the troops. That's what leadership is.'' By contrast, the General Motors guys closed the plants, said no profit sharing, and the next day gave themselves a $1 million bonus.
Ross Perot



You can never stand in a position of leadership without opposition. My attitude is that this can sometimes be healthy because it keeps you in a constant state of examining yourself, your motives and methods. I always try to take criticism in a positive sense. . .
Martin Luther King Jr

What’s the most important thing you can tell me about leadership? I’d say, ‘Just treat people the way you’d want to be treated.’
Ross Perot

Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk – especially in new undertakings.
Walt Disney

Leadership by personal example is vital, both in heroics as in day-to-day small gestures.
Jorge Paulo Lemann

You can have two teams that are physically equal, but one can have a better team spirit, better morale, perhaps better leadership, and the difference will be huge.
Graham Turner

A dollar put into a book and a book mastered might change the whole course of a boy’s life. It might easily be the beginning of the development of leadership that would carry the boy far in service to his fellow men.
Henry Ford

Writing a charity cheque on its own doesn’t guarantee a better life for others, but combining it with your leadership definitely will.
Andrew Forrest

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
Stephen Covey

Every basic analysis of leadership emphasizes the importance of integrity.
Mary Kay Ash

People won’t follow a person they don’t trust.
Mary Kay Ash



Not only was the community faced with competing leadership; it was also crippled by the indifference of the educated group. This indifference expressed itself in a lack of participation in any move toward better racial conditions, and a sort of tacit acceptance of things as they were.
Martin Luther King Jr

Leadership and personality matter… Intelligence, education, and analytical reasoning matter.
Eric Schmidt

Leaders never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own.
Jack Welch

You are not a leader to win a popularity contest – you are a leader to lead.
Jack Welch

Real leaders aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
Mary Kay Ash

The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.
Mary Kay Ash

Leaders, whether in the family, in business, in government, or in education, must not allow themselves to mistake intentions for accomplishments.
Jim Rohn

Leaders teach. They motivate. They care. Leaders make sure that the way to success is always broad enough and straight enough for others to follow.
Mary Kay Ash

Good leaders are good listeners.
Mary Kay Ash

Leaders are enthusiastic, and enthusiasm is contagious.
Mary Kay Ash



True leaders establish success patterns that make everyone think success.
Mary Kay Ash

People often resist change when they don’t participate in the decision-making process. Some of the best leaders ‘plant the seed’ that permits others to propose the idea and take credit for it!
Mary Kay Ash

The motivation which makes a man a good student is not the kind of motivation which makes him a good leader.
David Ogilvy

Great leaders are always fanatically committed to their jobs.
David Ogilvy

Good leaders are decisive.
David Ogilvy

The best leaders are apt to be found among those executives who have a strong component of unorthodoxy in their character. Instead of resisting innovation, they symbolize it.
David Ogilvy

Without the right leaders developing and owning them, we’d get good-looking presentations and so-so results.
Jack Welch

The mindset of yesterday’s manager – accepting compromise, keeping things tidy – bred complacency. Tomorrow’s leaders must raise issues, debate them, and resolve them. They must rally around a vision of what a business can become.
Jack Welch

Our behavior will produce leaders, good managers, and – most importantly – entrepreneurs. It is my desire that we take initiatives as opposed to being only reactive and that we encourage intelligent individual risk-taking.
Roberto Goizueta

Think about it. If a company wanted merely to create shareowner value right now, its leaders could suddenly make hundreds of decisions that would deliver a staggering short-term windfall. They could gouge their customers and suppliers. They could stop investing in their brands or stop behaving like good corporate citizens. They could slash salaries and benefits. They could put their business up for auction to the highest bidder. But that type of behavior has nothing to do with sustaining value creation over time.
Roberto Goizueta



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