Do you want to be a good leader and looking for some guidance for the same? We have brought you this amazing collection of leadership quotes by famous authors, philosophers, leaders, and other personalities that will tell you what a good leader looks like and how to be one.
Being a leader is a great responsibility. You have to accomplish a particular task along with taking care of your team.
There’s a difference between a boss and a leader. A boss is indifferent to his subordinates and gets his tasks accomplished through a dictatorship.
While for a leader there are no subordinates. He / She refers to them as team members and believes in accomplishing tasks together instead of being a dictator.
A leader is empathetic. He takes care of the needs of his team members and keeps them motivated. A good leader is one who talks to his employees and understands them.
Moreover, a wonderful leader is one who brings out the creativity of its team members instead of killing their creativity.
Being a leader is more about being kind, empathetic, and understanding than being powerful, positioning, and dictating.
Here’s a list of leadership quotes that are going to teach you the qualities of a good leader. Also share these quotes with your friends who may require these quotes.
Don’t forget to also read our collection of Growing Up Quotes about changing for the better
Best Leadership Quotes
- “The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.” -Henry Kissinger
- “To add value to others, one must first value others.” -John Maxwell
- “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” -Seth Godin
- “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
- “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
- “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” -Kurt Vonnegut
- “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” -Margaret Thatcher
- “A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.”-M. D. Arnold
- “Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.” -James Humes
- “There are no office hours for leaders.” -Cardinal J. Gibbons
- “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “When people talk, listen completely.” -Ernest Hemingway
- “The important thing is this: to be able to give up in any given moment all that we are for what we can become.” -Dedeaux
- “I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through then follow through.” -Edward Rickenbacker
- “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” -Arnold Glasow
- “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.” -Herbert Swope
- “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
- “Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.” -Warren Bennis
- “The important thing is this: to be able to give up in any given moment all that we are for what we can become.” -Dedeaux
- “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” -Ray Kroc
- “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.” -David Star Jordan
- “Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share the pain.” -Max Depree
- “Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.” -Diogenes of Sinope
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.” -Peter F. Drucker
- “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” -Harvey S. Firestone
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.” -Peter F. Drucker
- “There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.” -Charles F. Kettering
- “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” -Ralph Nader
- “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren G. Bennis
- “A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.” -Joel Barker
- “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John Maxwell
- “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” -Arnold Glasow
- “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” -Peter F. Drucker
- “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” -Brian Tracy
- “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
Powerful Quotes on Leadership
- “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
- “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” -Margaret Fuller
- “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “The things we fear most in organizations–fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances–are the primary sources of creativity.” -Margaret Wheatley
- “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” -Tony Blair
- “The price of greatness is responsibility.” -Winston Churchill
- “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” -Brian Tracy
- “You manage things; you lead people.” -Grace Murray Hopper
- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
- “The highest of distinctions is service to others.” -King George VI
- “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
- “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” -John C. Maxwell
- “If you’re not sure where you are going, you’re liable to end up someplace else.” -Robert F. Mager
- “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” -Publilius Syrus
- “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” -John C. Maxwell
- “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -Jack Welch
- “Doing what is right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what is right.” -Lyndon B Johnson
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill
- “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.” -Mahatma Gandhi
- “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” -Robert Louis Stevenson
- “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” -Edith Wharton
Inspirational Leadership Quotes
- “You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.” -Jeanette Rankin
- “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” -John F. Kennedy
- “The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them.” -Carlos Ghosn
- “Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.” -Pete Hoekstra
- “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
- “To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” -Colin Powell
- “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
- “Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.” -Harold Geneen
- “Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone’s following you.” -Henry Gilmer
- “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
- “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” -William Arthur Ward
- “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
- “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” -Andrew Carnegie
- “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.”-Dianne Feinstein
- “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” -Stephen Covey
- “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
Motivational Leadership Quotes
- “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” -John Buchan
- “Leadership is an action, not a position.” -Donald McGannon
- “Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” -George S. Patton Jr.
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.” -Abraham Lincoln
- “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.” -Leroy Times
- “The most effective way to lead is to lead from within.” -(could not help myself) Lolly Daskal
- “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” -Ken Blanchard
- “The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” -Ralph Nader
- “Earn your leadership every day.” -Michael Jordan
- “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” -Bill Gates
- “Those who let things happen usually lose to those who make things happen.” -Dave Weinbaum
- “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” -Abraham Lincoln
- “Leadership is an ever-evolving position.” -Mike Krzyzewski
- “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” -Nancy D. Solomon
- “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” -Steve Jobs
- “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” -John Zenger
- “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” -John D. Rockefeller
- “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” -Bill Bradley
- “The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” -Ken Blanchard
Motivational Quotes by Female Leaders
- “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.” -Clare Boothe Luce
- “The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” -Ayn Rand
- “People think at the end of the day that a man is the only answer [to fulfillment]. Actually a job is better for me.” -Diana, Princess of Wales
- “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” -Maya Angelou
- “You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame.” -Erica Jong
- “Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.” -Elizabeth Gilbert
- “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” -Brené Brown
- “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” -Rosa Parks
- “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” -Anais Nin
- “A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.” -Beyoncé
- “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” -Ida B. Wells
- “Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.” -J. K. Rowling
- “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” -Billie Jean King
- “My best successes came on the heels of failures.” -Barbara Corcoran
- “Dreams and reality are opposites. Action synthesizes them.” -Assata Shakur
- “We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” -Marie Curie
- “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
Conclusion
Leadership is an ongoing journey of learning, growth, and influence. The right mindset, backed by wisdom from experienced leaders, can shape your path to success. The leadership quotes shared in this article provide valuable insights into the qualities that define a great leader—vision, resilience, empathy, and the ability to inspire others.
Whether you are leading a team, managing a business, or striving for personal growth, these quotes remind us that true leadership is about lifting others up, making bold decisions, and staying committed to our values.
As you move forward in your leadership journey, let these powerful words guide your actions and decisions. Keep learning, stay inspired, and continue to lead with confidence. Remember, leadership is not about authority—it’s about impact.
FAQs
What is leadership in simple terms?
Leadership is the ability to guide, inspire, and influence others toward achieving a common goal. A true leader leads by example, empowers their team, and makes decisions that drive success.
Who are some famous leaders known for their leadership wisdom?
Some of the most influential leaders known for their wisdom and guidance include Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, John C. Maxwell, Elon Musk, and Simon Sinek. Their leadership quotes continue to inspire people worldwide.
How can leadership quotes help in personal and professional growth?
Leadership quotes provide valuable lessons on decision-making, teamwork, problem-solving, and perseverance. They encourage individuals to think critically, develop a positive mindset, and take initiative in leadership roles.
What are the key qualities of a great leader?
A great leader possesses qualities such as vision, communication skills, emotional intelligence, integrity, adaptability, and the ability to motivate others. Leadership quotes often highlight these essential traits.
What are some powerful leadership quotes to inspire success?
There are many impactful leadership quotes, such as:
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." – John C. Maxwell
"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, but the one who gets people to do the greatest things." – Ronald Reagan
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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