quotations about leadership
Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.
ROBERT JARVIK
attributed, Deliberate Success
The great leader attracts to himself men of kindred character, drawing them towards him as the loadstone draws iron.
SAMUEL SMILES
Character
The leader continually passes on the vision to those who come around, knowing that dreams, if presented right, are contagious.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Developing the Leader Within You
Leadership is much less about what you do, and much more about who you are. If you view leadership as a bag of manipulative tricks or charistmatic behaviors to advance your own personal interests, then people have every right to be cynical. But if your leadership flows first and foremost from inner character and integrity of ambition, then you can justly ask people to lend themselves to your organization and its mission.
JIM COLLINS
foreward, Hesselbein on Leadership
Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.
FRANK HERBERT
Dune
The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.
TONY BLAIR
Mail on Sunday, Oct. 2, 1994
A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.
STEPHEN KING
Under the Dome
Every age fraught with discord and danger seems to spawn a leader meant only for that age, a political giant whose absence, in retrospect, seems inconceivable when the history of that age is written.
DAN SIMMONS
The Fall of Hyperion
Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
address at the Episcopal National Cathedral, Washington D.C., Mar. 31, 1968
When one sheep leads the way all the rest follow.
CHINESE PROVERB
Who aspires to remain leader must keep in advance of his column. His fear must not play traitor to his occasions. The instant he falls into line with his followers, a bolder spirit may throw himself at the head of the movement initiated, and in that moment his leadership is gone.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Bad leadership is an oxymoron.
JOSEPH CLARENCE ROST
Leadership for the Twenty-first Century
It often happens that less depends upon the valor of an army than the skill of the leader.
ARISTOPHANES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Leadership is not something you do to people, but something you do with people.
KEN BLANCHARD
Leading at a Higher Level
Truly inspiring leaders are authentic, that is, they have done their strategic homework, they have a vision that matches the people they are working with, and they believe in that vision deeply. They are not faking it.
RONALD J. BURKE & CARY L. COOPER
Inspiring Leaders
"Safety first" has been the motto of the human race for half a million years; but it has never been the motto of leaders. A leader must face danger. He must take the risk and the blame, and the brunt of the storm.
HERBERT N. CASSON
The Office Economist
Leaders are said to be responsive to what their followers want because the followers choose the leader and leaders want to keep their leadership positions. The assumption that leaders will be responsive to followers because leaders want to win and hold power is a useful starting point for understanding the politics of leadership in any democratic institution. However, such an assumption may become misleading if leaders are understood to care only about retaining their leadership positions. If some congressional leaders are strongly committed to political goals beyond remaining leader--and we shall see that some are--we would not expect those leaders always to be inclined to take their bearings from what their followers want. When opportunities arise to pursue other intensely held goals, some may be willing to act independently of followers and even risk their leadership positions in pursuit of those goals. If so, leaders who are more risk-tolerant may be consequential for influencing outcomes in a wider range of political situations than just those situations in which their followers are already mostly in agreement.
RANDALL STRAHAN
Leading Representatives
Leadership is not just one quality, but rather a blend of many qualities; and while no one individual possesses all the needed talents to go into leadership, each man can develop a combination to make him a leader.
VINCE LOMBARDI
attributed, Run to Win: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership
Leadership is not something you own and keep for yourself. It is a responsibility you are entrusted with for a period of time, and it is a duty you fulfill.
KEITH D. HARRELL
The Attitude of Leadership
Leading means running fast enough to keep ahead of your people.
S. M. STIRLING
The Sunrise Lands