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We gathered 50 quotes about leadership from noteworthy leaders, helping us define what separates good leaders from great ones. Which is your favorite?

Leadership Quotes

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

2. He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command. Niccolò Machiavelli

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

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

5. 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

6. 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. Denise Morrison

7. Leadership is an ever-evolving position. Mike Krzyzewski

8. 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. George Orwell

9. 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. Barack Obama

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

Leadership Quotes For Work

11. 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. Lewis H. Lapham

12. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. John C. Maxwell

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

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

15. 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? Satya Nadella

16. Related: Success Quotes to Motivate You to Achieve Your Goals. Short Leadership Quotes Leadership Quotes – Jim Rohn All leaders are readers. Jim Rohn

17. 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. John Maxwell

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

19. 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. Daniel 2:48

20. 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. Robert Townsend

Inspiring Leadership Quotes

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

22. Leadership Quotes – Brian Tracy Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. Brian Tracy

23. 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. Walt Disney

24. 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. Ben Carson

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

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

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

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

29. 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. Andy Stanley

30. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Philemon 4:6

Powerful Leadership Quotes

31. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy

32. Whoever guards his mouth and tongue, Keeps his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23

33. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Warren G. Bennis

34. 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. Albert Einstein

35. 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

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

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

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

39. There are no office hours for leaders. Cardinal J. Gibbons

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

Praising A Leader Quotes

41. 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? Henry Mintzberg

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

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

44. 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. Dolly Parton

45. Leadership Quotes About Teamwork Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess. Richard Branson

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

47. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:21

48. Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. John D. Rockefeller

49. 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. Ralph Waldo Emerson

50. Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory. Proverbs 11:14