Read the best leadership quotes, sayings, proverbs, captions, and philosophy to motivate you to be a good leader.
How do you define leadership?
A leader is someone who can see how things can be improved and who rallies people to move toward that better vision. Leaders can work toward making their vision a reality while putting people first.
A good leader provides direction to their team and leads by example.
Leadership is all about channeling the workforce in the right direction and a leader serves as a guiding force for their team, helping them navigate challenges, overcome obstacles, and achieve their goals.
Just being able to motivate people isn’t enough — leaders need to be empathetic and connect with people to be successful and always guide them in the right direction.
By being a compass for their team, a leader can help create a sense of direction, purpose, and motivation that drives success.
Let these words show you what it means to become a leader, and then allow them to empower you to lead well.
Top 10 Leadership Quotes
- “To lead people, walk behind them.” ― Lao Tzu
leadership quotes - “A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
leadership quote - “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” ― Tom Peters
quotes about leadership - “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs
quotes on leadership - “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” — Margaret Thatcher
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” — Peter Drucker
- “To be a great leader of people – inspire them to follow you, not your rules.” ― Jeffrey Gitomer
leader quotes - “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” — Bill Gates
great leadership quotes - “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” — Brian Tracy
- “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” ― John Quincy Adams
Famous Quotes About Leadership
- “A good leader is a compass of the team.” — Trisha.J
- “The price of greatness is responsibility.” — Winston Churchill
- “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” — John F Kennedy
- “Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people.” — Brian Tracy
- “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.” — M. D. Arnold
- “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “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
- “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
- “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
- “Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
- “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” — Bill Bradley
- “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” — General Colin Powell
- “There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust.” — Klaus Balkenhol
Best Quotes On Leadership
- “Earn your leadership every day.” — Michael Jordan
- “Be the kind of leader that you would follow.” — Unknown
- “Leadership is action, not a position.”— Donald McGannon
- “You can’t create greater followers under poor leadership.” — Unknown
- “Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality.” – Warren G. Bennis
- “The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” — John Wooden
- “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” — Stephen Covey
- “A good leader leads at the front of an army, even though that might cost him his life. A bad leader hides at the back of the army, and that is what makes him lose the war.” — Unknown
- “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” —Nelson Mandela
Great Leadership Quotes
- “If serving is below you, leadership is beyond you.” — Anonymous
- “Lead from the back – and let others believe they are in front.” — Nelson Mandela
- “Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob.” – Oscar Wilde
- “In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up and goes.” – John Erskine
- “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” – Henry Kissinger
- “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” – John Buchan
- “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” – Walter Lippmann
- “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
- “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
- “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
Inspiring Leadership Quotes
- “Integrity, insight, and inclusiveness are the three essential qualities of leadership.” — Sadhguru
- “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” — Harvey Firestone
- “Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.” — Harold S. Geneen
- “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” — Tom Peters
- “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” — Ralph Nader
- “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” — John Zenger
- “If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.” – Benjamin Hooks
- “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see.” — Leroy Eimes
- “Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” — Unknown
- “Good leaders organize and align people around what the team needs to do. Great leaders motivate and inspire people with why they’re doing it.” — Marillyn Hewson
Powerful Leadership Quotes
- “A boss has the title, a leader has the people.” — Simon Sinek
- “Only he can be a leader who never loses hope.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.” — Kenneth H. Blanchard
- “Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about caring for those you are in charge of.” — Simon Sinek
- “Great leaders find ways to connect with their people and help them fulfill their potential.” ― Steven J. Stowell
- “A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it.” — Harry S. Truman
- “True leaders always practice the three R’s: Respect for self, Respect for others, Responsibility for all their actions.” ― Anonymous
- “Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader… they set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role—always the goal.” ― Cathy Quartner Bailey
- “Empowering those around you to be heard and valued makes the difference between a leader who simply instructs and one who inspires.” — Adena Friedman
- “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
Inspiring John C. Maxwell Leadership Quotes
- “Leadership is influence.” — John C. Maxwell
- “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” — John C. Maxwell
- “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” — John C. Maxwell
- “A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” — John C. Maxwell
- “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” — John C. Maxwell
- “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” — John C. Maxwell
- “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and little less than his share of the credit.” — John C. Maxwell
Inspirational Leadership Quotes by Women
- “Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.” — Margaret Wheatley
- “Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.” — Mary D. Poole
- “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” — Mother Teresa
- “Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” — Sheryl Sanberg
- “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
- “The world’s most prominent women leaders show the importance of honesty, courage, impact, and decisive action in leadership.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “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
- “Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.” — Indra Nooyi
- “My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office, he once asked me, does your staff carry on remarkable well without you?” — Martha Peak
More Inspirational Quotes
Leadership qualities include strong communication skills, the ability to inspire and motivate others, integrity, empathy, strategic thinking, adaptability, decisiveness, and a willingness to take risks.
Effective leaders are also collaborative, accountable, and committed to the success of their team.
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