quotations about leadership
Leading means running fast enough to keep ahead of your people.
S. M. STIRLING
The Sunrise Lands
I see [it said that] leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the ... nation will find it very hard to look up to leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
speech in House of Commons, Sep. 30, 1941
True leadership strengthens the followers. It is a process of teaching, setting an example, and empowering others. If you seek to lead, your ability will ultimately be measured in the successes of those around you.
DAVID NIVEN
100 Simple Secrets of Successful People
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
ERIC HOFFER
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
To be a leader of men one must turn one's back on men.
HAVELOCK ELLIS
introduction, Against the Grain
There is no such thing as a perfect leader.... If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant.
LIU SHAOQI
attributed, Mao and China: From Revolution to Revolution
Leadership is not just one quality, but rather a blend of many qualities; and while no one individual possesses all the needed talents to go into leadership, each man can develop a combination to make him a leader.
VINCE LOMBARDI
attributed, Run to Win: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership
Good leadership is largely invisible. When everything runs smoothly, no one notices.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Harkonnen
Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.
COLIN POWELL
"10 Leadership Tenets from Colin Powell", Stanford Graduate School of Business
There are two kinds of leaders: those who are interested in the flock, and those who are interested in the fleece.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Leadership is not something you do to people, but something you do with people.
KEN BLANCHARD
Leading at a Higher Level
Leadership is about mobilising people to tackle tough changes and thrive, while authority simply looked at protection, direction and order and can be a strait jacket if not used correctly.
KIRK HUMPHREY
"The Time for Adaptive Leadership is Right Now", Barbados Advocate, April 24, 2016
Little leading makes much following.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Laicus: Or, The Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish
Real leadership is not about calling yourself "leader"; rather, it's about taking up the cause to change some piece of the world for the better. Real leadership, in other words, is an extreme act rooted in love and motivated by a desire to create a better world--whether it's the world of your company, team, neighborhood, or family.
STEVE FARBER & MATTHEW KELLY
Greater Than Yourself
Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure.
ARLEIGH BURKE
attributed, Naval Leadership: Voices of Experience
At the heart of leadership is the leader's relationship with followers. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.
DAVID GERGAN
Eyewitness to Power
That's the first rule of command; be consistent! You can be sadistic, you can be lazy, you can be stupid, but if you're consistent the crew will still let you sit in when they play dominoes.
JAMES ALAN GARDNER
Expendable
What was leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason.
ROBERT HARRIS
Pompeii
If you command wisely, you'll be obeyed cheerfully.
THOMAS FULLER
Gnomologia
Because leadership is contextual and culturally contingent, its practice cannot be divorced from the specific socio-cultural context within which it occurs. Leadership development must begin to make contextual sense to its recipients, and to the social contexts in which they will be practicing as leaders.
VANESSA IWOWO
"Leadership: one size does not fit all contexts", Business Review, April 20, 2016