Good Leadership Quotes

Successful leadership is more about your ability to improvise rather than your actual abilities themselves.

"I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?" -Benjamin Disraeli

"Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them." -Benjamin Jowett

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow." -Plato

"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader." -General George S. Patton Jr

"The true measure of leadership isn't by how many answer to you, but rather by how many you can answer."

"To lead people, walk beside them... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate... When the best leader's work is done, the people say 'We did it ourselves!'" -Lao Tsu

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

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through an argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." - Gen. Colin Powell

"I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be." -Warren Bennis

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. Once you are a leader, success is all about growing others." -Jack Welch

"To be able to lead others, man must be willing to go forward alone." -Harry Truman

"Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." -John Maxwell

Remember, the difference between a boss and a leader... A boss says "Go"; a leader says 'Let's go.'" -Unknown

"First rule of leadership; everything is your fault." -Unknown

'I don't punish my men for making mistakes. I punish them for not learning from them.' -Dan Marcinko, SEAL Team 6

"If you're a CEO that rewards mediocrity & indifference then don't be surprised when that's what you get from your people." -Steve Keating

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." -Dee Hock, Founder & CEO Emeritus, Visa


"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." -John Kenneth Galbraith

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." —Warren Bennis