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Effective leadership is the key to taking your success to the next level in 2024.
Good leaders can turn negative situations into opportunities for growth, they can take themselves and their organizations to new heights of success.
In today’s post, we’ll be sharing some leadership quotes so you can think about what it means to lead and how you can mold yourself to be the most effective leader you can be.
Why You Should Read Leadership Quotes
What is leadership? As children, we know that our parents are the “boss” as they’re in charge and there are consequences for not doing as we’re told.
You might have had bad experiences with a petty workplace tyrant, but at the end of the day, a good leader isn’t there to control people. We all know this internally, if you’ve ever had a favorite manager or been approached by your employees and given praise, it isn’t because you make them terrified of failure.
While making sure people follow the rules is important, the essence of really good leadership is vision.
Vision means that you can see things other people can’t, it means you pay attention to life in a way that you can see paths to take out of negative situations or towards goals that others can’t.
A good leader can see what paths to take and motivates both themselves and others to take the actions needed to get to where they have to go.
While this may sound simple, being a good leader is incredibly hard – because on the surface, a manager, executive, boss, or even a general in the army might seem effective if he has his underlings quaking in their boots, but this just stifles the talent, growth, and potential that’s hiding in your organization.
If you take a look at some of the most renowned leaders in the world, they give people a mission that inspires them and then they work to bring out the best in everyone around them.
A leader that can do this simply cannot help but succeed.
121 Great Leadership Quotes for a Successful 2023
- “You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership.” – Dwight Eisenhower
- “There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.” – Warren Bennis
- “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
- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
- “Integrity, insight, and inclusiveness are the three essential qualities of leadership” – Sadhguru
- “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” – George Patton
- “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy
- “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs
- “Don't follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you.” – Margaret Thatcher
- “I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn't.” – Dee Dee Myers
- “Leadership is not just about giving energy… it’s unleashing other people’s energy.” – Paul Polman
Leadership is not just about giving energy… it’s unleashing other people’s energy.” – Paul Polman
- “I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.” – John Hume
- “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “A leader should be visionary and have more foresight than an employee.” – Jack Ma
- “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.” – John Maxwell
- “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
- “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
- “The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign.” – Bill Taylor
- “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
- “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
- “My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” – Thomas Paine
- “Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” – Unknown
- “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh
- “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
- “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.” – Lao Tzu
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “All leaders are readers.” – Jim Rohn
- “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “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.” – Jim Rohn
- “Success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
- “We live in a society obsessed with public opinion. But leadership has never been about popularity.” – Marco Rubio
- “We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children.” – Kofi Annan
- “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” – Dalai Lama
- “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” – John Maxwell
- “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
- “Leadership distilled down to 3 words: Make a difference.” – Robin Sharma
- “Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.” – Bill Clinton
- “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
- To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. – Friedrich Nietzsche
- “The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.” – Kenneth H. Blanchard
The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.” – Kenneth H. Blanchard
- “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” – Harvey Firestone
- “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen R. Covey
- “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
- A person who is happy is not because everything is right in his life, He is happy because his attitude towards everything in his life is right. – Sundar Pichai
- “Leadership is an action, not a position.” – Donald McGannon
- “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” – Ken Blanchard
- “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
- “It’s all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” – Queen Elizabeth II
- “It doesn’t matter when we start. It doesn’t matter where we start. All that matters is that we start”. – Simon Sinek
- “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
- “Hire character. Train skill.” – Peter Schutz
- “Find the smartest people you can and surround yourself with them.” – Marissa Meyer
- “As we look ahead to the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” – Bill Gates
As we look ahead to the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” – Bill Gates
- “One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” – Arnold Glasow
- “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
- “If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.” – Brad Szollose
- “Leadership is not a popularity contest; it's about leaving your ego at the door. The name of the game is to lead without a title.” – Robin S. Sharma
- “The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.” – Seth Godin
- “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” – Chinese Proverb
- “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” – Peter F. Drucker
- “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” – Diogenes
- “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” – Andrew Carnegie
- “A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” – Nelson Mandela
- “What you do has a far greater impact than what you say.” – Stephen Covey
- “To lead people, walk behind them” – Lao Tzu
- “If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself, and the organization gets pulled up with you.” – Indra Nooyi
- “Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do, and let them surprise you with their results.” – George Patton
- “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” – Max Lucado
- “Leaders walk a fine line between self-confidence and humility.” – Stanley McChrystal
- “For the success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organizations as well as industries.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
- “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 concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” – Colin Powell
- “Never give an order that can't be obeyed.” – General Douglas MacArthur
Never give an order that can't be obeyed.” – General Douglas MacArthur
- “Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors.” – Jocko Willink
- “Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do.” – Max De Pree
- “Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.” – J. Donald Walters
- “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” – Steve Jobs
- “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.“ – Stephen Covey
- A good leader must hate the wrong thing more than they hate the pain of doing the right thing.” – Angela Jiang
- “Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.” – Orrin Woodward
- “A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate, we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before.” – Nelson Mandela
- “Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.” – Erskine Bowles
- “No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become leaders. So the point is not to become a leader.” – Warren Bennis
- “Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.” – Stephen Covey
- “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – Norman Schwarzkopf
- “Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.” – E. Joseph Cossman
- “Great leaders can see the greatness in others when they can’t see it themselves and lead them to their highest potential they don’t even know.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
- “Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.”. – Woodrow Wilson
- “Leaders don’t force people to follow – they invite them on a journey.” – Charles S. Lauer
- “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.” – Toni Morrison
- “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.”- Dianne Feinstein
- “Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.” – Jesse Jackson
Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.” – Jesse Jackson
- “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- “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.” – Alexander the Great
- “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “If you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead. Even the highest mountain had animals that step on it.” – Jack Weatherford
- “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” – John C. Maxwell
- “Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” – Mary D. Poole
- “Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word.” – Brian Tracy
- “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
- “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.” – Peter F. Drucker
- “A leader operating in enemy territory should always project positivity and optimism.” – Naval Ravikant
- “Great leaders do not fear challenges, because challenges do not break leaders but sharpen them.” – Gift Gugu Mona
- “Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led.” – Ross Perot
- “It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself.” – Latin Proverb
- “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.” – Tom Landry
- “It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” – Adlai Stevenson
- “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Chuck Swindoll
- “The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful. – Jon Taffer
- “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” – Maya Angelou
- “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.” – Solon
- “In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.” – Tina Fey
- “Leadership is having a compelling vision, a comprehensive plan, relentless implementation, and talented people working together.” – Alan Mulally
- “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” – John Zenger
- “True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” – Sheryl Sandberg
- “The first job of leadership is to love people. Leadership without love is manipulation.” – Rick Warren
- “People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” – Thomas Sowell
- “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
Final Thoughts on Leadership Quotes
Developing yourself to be a better leader isn’t just something nice to do in 2023. It’s a worthy goal that can help transform your life over decades, we hope these leadership quotes have given some precious insight into how great leaders have thought throughout history.
The first step to becoming a greater leader is developing a strong foundation of self-confidence. Check out these 13 habits to increase your self-confidence and take the first step in this rewarding journey.
And if you want more eye-opening quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 31 John Wooden Quotes on Success & Leadership in 2023
- 76 Zig Ziglar Quotes on Success, Leadership, and Sales
- 71 Tony Robbins Motivational Quotes on Life, Love & Leadership
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then watch this free video that details the 7-minute habit for planning your day to focus on what's truly important to you..
Tom Smith is a creative writer with over 6 years of professional experience. He discovered the joy of writing after covering some furniture in his childhood home with graffiti. In later years, he got himself a BA in creative writing and hasn’t looked back. After discovering the power of positive thinking and discovering the spiritual side of life, he believes it's a huge privilege to be able to write about all things personal development.
