Inspirational Messages

65 Leadership Quotes to Inspire You

Read these top 65 leadership quotes from top leaders in history to understand the definition, qualities and purpose of a great leader. Words of wisdom from some of the top former and current leaders in the world to impart on your leadership, then look no further.

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Leadership Quotes

1. 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. Robin S. Sharma

2. 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

3. 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. Travis Bradberry

4. 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

5. 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. Jocko Willink

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

7. 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. Dave Barry

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

9. 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. G.K. Chesterton

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

Unique Leadership Quotes

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

12. 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.

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

14. Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share pain. Max Depree

15. Don’t follow the crowd; let the crowd follow you. Margaret Thatcher

16. Leadership is service to others. Denise Morrison

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

18. 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. Jim Rohn

19. 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

20. 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. Linda McMahon

Leadership Quotes For Work

21. I praise loudly, I blame softly. Catherine the Great

22. 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. Frederick W. Smith

23. Related: Never Give Up Quotes What Is Leadership? Leadership Quotes – Bill Bradley Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. Bill Bradley

24. 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. Ingvar Kamprad

25. A leader is a dealer in hope. Napoleon Bonaparte

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

27. Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is working with objectives. Russel Honore

28. Leadership Quotes – Richard Branson The things we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity. Margaret Wheatley

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

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

Praising A Leader Quotes

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

32. 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. Romans 5:3-5

33. Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership. Eric Hoffer

34. There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them. Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

35. Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. Margaret Fuller

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

37. 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. Ronald Reagan

38. 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. Ginni Rometty

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

40. The only safe ship in a storm is leadership. Faye Wattleton

Best Quotes on Leadership

41. 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. Douglas MacArthur

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

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

44. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward

45. “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. Harry Truman

46. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. John C. Maxwell

47. 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. Christine Lagarde

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

49. Leadership is action, not position. Donald H. McGannon

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

Powerful Leadership Quotes

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

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

53. 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. J.K. Rowling

54. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. Edward R. Murrow

55. Leadership Quotes – King George Vi The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. Ken Blanchard

56. 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. Joyce Meyer

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

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

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

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