210 Leadership Quotes That Will Change Your Life

Leadership is a complicated subject. Leadership refers to an individual's or organization's ability to “lead” or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations.

In academic settings in the United States, “leadership” is defined as “a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the fulfillment of a common task.”

Leading entails wanting to be greater than we are and helping everything and everyone around us to do the same.

We gathered 210 leadership quotes from notable leaders. When your team members or supervisors need some motivation, share these leadership quotes with them.

Top 10 Leadership Quotes

You have to think anyway, so why not think big?

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

The single biggest way to impact an organisation is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organisation that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.

My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they have a meaningful impact.

Leadership to me means duty, honour, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus.

The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.

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What Is Leadership?

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.

Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Leadership is the key to 99 per cent of all successful efforts.

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

Leadership is standing with your people. People say you have to live to fight another day, but sometimes you have to show you are a true leader.

Leadership is something you earn, something you’re chosen for. You can’t come in yelling, ‘I’m your leader!’ If it happens, it’s because the other guys respect you.

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 conclude you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

Leadership is simply the ability of an individual to coalesce the efforts of other individuals toward achieving common goals. It boils down to looking after your people and ensuring that, from top to bottom, everyone feels part of the team.

Leadership is possible in all different ways, and in all different areas of life. Whether it is with friends or family, I expect them to set a great example for me, and hopefully, I will do the same for them. And that is all part of being a leader.

Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.

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.

Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.

Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.

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.

Leadership is liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible.

Leadership is inspiring extraordinary people to step up and serve their country.

Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.

Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.

Leadership is an individual sport, one that has to be fine-tuned to each of the people that reports to you. Leaders also need to provide the direction, energy, encouragement and inspiration for each person who reports directly to the leader as well as for the overall organisation.

Leadership is an ever-evolving position.

Leadership is an active role; ‘lead’ is a verb. But the leader who tries to do it all is headed for burnout and in a powerful hurry.

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.

Leadership is absolutely about inspiring action, but it is also about guarding against mid-action.

Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.

Leadership is about making the right decision and the best decision before, sometimes, it becomes entirely popular.

Leadership is about having the courage to go against the advice of the so-called experts and doing what your instinct tells you is right.

Leadership is about doing the right thing, even if it going against a vast number of naysayers and mediocre people.

Leadership is about creating, day by day, a domain in which we and those around us continually deepen our understanding of reality and are able to participate in shaping the future. This, then, is the deeper territory of leadership – collectively ‘listening to what is wanting to emerge in the world, and then having the courage to do what is required.

Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.

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Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

Leadership is a mindset that shifts from being a victim to creating results. Any one of us can demonstrate leadership in our work and within our lives.

Leadership is a mindset in action. So don’t wait for the title. Leadership isn’t something that anyone can give you – you have to earn it and claim it for yourself.

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.

As a business owner, leadership is more than just telling others what to do. Leadership is about the investment we make into others and the responsibilities we accept for being the voice and direction that others count on.

I learned that leadership is about falling in love with the people and the people falling in love with you. It is about serving the people with selflessness, with sacrifice, and with the need to put the common good ahead of personal interests.

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

I think leadership is something you earn, more through actions than words.

One of my beliefs about leadership is it’s not how many followers you have, but how many people you have with different opinions that you can bring together and try to be a good listener.

One thing that somebody told me is that leadership is a lonely role – some people can do it, and some people can’t.

The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them.

Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

Leadership offers an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, no matter what the project.

Leadership means forming a team and working toward common objectives that are tied to time, metrics, and resources.

Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.

Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.

Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.

Optimism is the ultimate definition of a leader. A leader has to look optimistically at what is ahead while not ignoring the challenges that must be overcome. Those challenges are in government, politics, world leadership, and even in community life.

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.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.

A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs.

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.

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.

A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.

A man is only a leader when a follower stands beside him.

A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

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.

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Short Leadership Quotes

All leaders are readers.

Actions, not words, are the ultimate results of leadership.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

A leader leads by example not by Force.

Leadership is action, not position.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

Don’t follow the crowd; let the crowd follow you.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

I praise loudly, I blame softly.

Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share pain.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone’s following you.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

The most effective way to lead is to lead from within.

The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.

The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang.

There are no office hours for leaders.

There is a significant difference between a leader and a cheerleader.

To lead the people, walk behind them.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

You can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself.

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Funny Leadership Quotes

You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault, not leadership.

A good leader takes care of those in their charge. A bad leader takes charge of those in their care.

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

If two or three persons should come with a high spiritual aim and with great powers, the world would fall into their hands like a ripe peach.

Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.

The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.

The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.

We have great managers who haven’t spent a day in management school. Do we have great surgeons that haven’t spent a day in surgical school?

When trouble arises, and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy.

Famous Leadership Quotes

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

When you’re in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There’s also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realise.

Uncertainty is a permanent part of the leadership landscape. It never goes away.

To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.

Some people want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. Others make it happen.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.

My jobs is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.

A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.

Management is the art of making problems so interesting that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.

Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.

High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

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Inspiring Leadership Quotes

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.

Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.

If ‘leadership’ has come to be known as something much bigger than us, aligned to changing the world, then we are spending way too much time celebrating things that hardly anyone can do and not celebrating things we can do every day.

“Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it’s a small price to pay for living a dream.

To me, leadership is about encouraging people. It’s about stimulating them. It’s about enabling them to achieve what they can achieve – and to do that with a purpose.

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly.

I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal.

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Great Leadership Quotes

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

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.

True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.

There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.

The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

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.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Leaders have to act more quickly today. The pressure comes much faster.

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.

If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.

Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.

A strong leader avoids becoming over-confident to the point of impaired judgment.

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.

The art of leadership is not to spend your time measuring, evaluating. It’s all about selecting the person. And if you believe you selected the right person, then you give that person the freedom, the authority, the delegation to innovate and to lead with some very simple measure.

Sometimes, leadership is planting trees under whose shade you’ll never sit. It may not happen fully until after I’m gone. But I know that the steps we’re taking are the right steps.

Servant Leadership Quotes

Leadership is service to others.

But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.

There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.

I think leadership is service and there is power in that giving: to help people, to inspire and motivate them to reach their fullest potential.

The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better.

Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.

Leadership Quotes By Women

To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.

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.

One of the most important things for any leader is never to let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution.

Leadership Quotes For Students

Great leaders develop other great leaders rather than complete great projects.

In leadership, tasks and relationships are tied together…The concern for the task must equal the concern for relationships. If imbalance is present, your mission will eventually fail.

If your situation – be it your family, your team, your church, or your friends – required a leader, would you step up and be one?

As leaders, we’re not always going to do things right. We’re going to make mistakes. We’re even going to make decisions that lead to failures. We need to learn from those mistakes and continue to take risks.

Leadership is not about top down decisions, but it’s about caring for people and their dreams.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

Leadership Quotes About Teamwork

Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.

The things we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity.

Whether we’re talking about leadership, teamwork, or client service, there is no more powerful attribute than the ability to be genuinely honest about one’s weaknesses, mistakes, and needs for help.

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

How the hell can I ask people who work for me to travel cheaply if I travel in luxury? It’s a question of good leadership.

If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you.

The thing I’m most focused on today is, how am I maximizing the effectiveness of the leadership team, and what am I doing to nurture it?

Leadership Quotes About Change

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.

We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Leadership can change its mind; leadership can open its eye. Leadership can even be replaced.

“In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

If you want to build something great, you should focus on what the change is that you want to make in the world.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

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Leadership Quotes From The Bible

You were created by God, hard wired with talents and personality traits that are unique to just you

Courageous leaders learn to live a consistent life of constant devotion to God in all circumstances.

In leadership, staying connected to God is key. If we lose our connection, we lose our foundation.

No on else in the world has the same strengths you do because God created all of us individually.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior.

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

Whoever guards his mouth and tongue, Keeps his soul from troubles.

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