Leadership Quotes

By Patrick Driessen

"A leader is one that knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way!" - John C. Maxwell

Below are some of my favourite and most inspiring leadership quotes. They always give me energy, inspiration, new insights, new ideas and…. I learn from them! Now you don’t have to be a fellow leader to like, adopt or even use the lessons and inspiration of these quotes. These leadership quotes are for everybody and anyone will perceive them differently. As I’ve stated before; good quotes work as vitamins for the brain, so please ENJOY and use them for your SUCCESS!

• “Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
• “A leader is a dealer in hope” - Napoleon Bonaparte
• “Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.” - Sir Winston Churchill
• "The leader of the past knew how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask." - Peter Drucker
• “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” - George S, Patton
• “Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” - Goethe
• “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.” - Queen Victoria
• “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
• “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
• “If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult to master strategy.” - Miyamoto Mursashi
• "The greatest leader isn’t necessarily the one who does the greatest things. The greatest leader is the one who gets the people to do the greatest things. " - Ronald Reagan
• “We will either find a way or make one.” - Hannibal
• “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy
• “If you want to get the best out of someone - you must look for the best that is in them.” - Unknown
• “As a leader you should always start with where people are before you try to take them to where you want them to go.” - Jim Rohn
• "A big challenge of leading within an organization is the tension of being caught in the middle. One of the best things you can do is ask what is expected of you. And then maintain a dialogue concerning expectations with the people to whom you answer." - John C. Maxwell
• “The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and wishbone that go with it.” - Elaine Agather
• “Nothing limits achievement like small thinking. Nothing equals possibilities like unleashed thinking.” - William Arthur Ward
• “Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.” - Goethe
• “Never . . . Never . . . Never . . . Never Give up!” - Winston Churchill
• “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” - Peter Drucker
• “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” - Aristotle
• “To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.” - Harry Truman
• “Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word.” - Jim Rohn
• "Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate and to connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives." - Oprah Winfrey
• “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” - Theodore Roosevelt
• "We lead by being human. We do not lead by being corporate, professional, or institutional." - Paul G. Hawken
• “The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.” - Thane Yost
• “Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.” - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” - Brian Tracy
• “Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win which is one of the essentials to success.” - Napoleon Hill
• “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 Drucker
• "Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one's levels of aspiration... and expectation!" - Jack Nicklaus
• "Provide your people with leadership experiences . It is impossible to learn leadership without actually leading. After all, leadership is action. One of the places where many top leaders miss developmental opportunities comes in what we delegate. Our natural tendency is to give others tasks to perform rather than leadership functions to fulfill. We need to make a shift. If we don’t delegate leadership—with authority as well as accountability—our people will never gain the experience they need to lead well." - John C. Maxwell
• “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which have been overcome while trying to succeed.” - Booker T. Washington
• “The difference between the impossible and possible lies in a person's determination.” - Unknown
• “Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people.” - Brian Tracy
• “My goal is to translate response into results. Some teachers teach for others to learn. That's not me. Some teachers teach for others to accomplish. That is me.” - Jim Rohn
• “What makes leadership is the ability to get people to do what they don't want to do and like it.” - Harry Truman
• “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
• “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” - Theodore Roosevelt
• “Respect is the key determinant of high performance leadership. How much people respect you determines how well they perform.” - Brian Tracy
• “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” - Jim Rohn
• “If I have the belief that I can do it, I will surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.” - Mahatma Gandhi
• “The three C's of leadership are Consideration, Caring, and Courtesy.” - Brian Tracy
• “To govern men, you must either excel them in their accomplishments, or despise them.” - Benjamin Disraeli
• “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” - Albert Einstein
• “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” - Jack Welch
• "Any endeavor you can undertake that involves other people will live or die depending on your leadership. As you work to build your organization:
  * Personnel determine the potential of the organization
  * Relationships determine the morale of the organization
  * Structure determines the size of the organization
  * Vision determines the direction of the organization
  * Leadership determines the success of the organization." - John C. Maxwell

Almost anyone can be a leader and this world needs more true leaders! I hope these quotes will give you the inspiration and insights to step up and become a leader or help you improve your leadership skills in successfully leading other people!

"A true leader will create and clearly communicate his vision, hope, passion, inspiration and the journey he’ll take his team members on." - Patrick Driessen

"Whatever kind of success you want in your life, the key to your success is to transform your thinking, emotions and behaviour!" - Patrick Driessen

Make this a Positive & INSPIRING Day…..unless you have other plans!

Warm regards & success,

Patrick Driessen

PS: Do you miss an inspiring leadership quote in my overview? Please feel free to send me your favourite quote (pdriessen@email.com). I’ll add the best ones to this list, so others can benefit from it as well!