150 Leadership Quotes That Will Boost Your Spirit

If you want to be a leader, start by reading about leadership. There are many great leadership quotes, but these are a few of my favorites that I think everyone should hear.

Leadership is about knowing yourself and connecting with others. Knowing who you are and what your goals.

Leadership is one of the most important skills that each one of us will need to master at some point in our lives. But not everybody knows what it is, let alone how to be a good one.

If you’ve ever been in a leadership role before, you know how difficult it can be. You may feel like you’re constantly swimming upstream. The good news is that leadership skills are learnable.

You can be a better leader – and a happier person – today. I’ve compiled a list of the best leadership quotes from history’s greatest leaders, past and present, for your reading enjoyment. I hope you find these quotes as insightful and inspiring as I did.

Leadership Quotes

Leadership Quotes

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

Leadership Quotes

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities. – Napoleon Hill

Leadership Quotes

The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously your people will take you. – John Maxwell

Leadership Quotes

The only reason to aspire to lead is because you aspire to serve. – Unknown

Leadership Quotes

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. – Bernard Baruch

Leadership Quotes

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. – Alexander the Great

Leadership Quotes

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them. – Einstein

Leadership Quotes

You don’t have to lead, if you have the heart to come from behind. – Priyanshu Singh

Leadership Quotes

Be open to new possibilities; allow potentiality to cross your path. – HR

Leadership Quotes

The secret to getting ahead is to get started. – Mark Twain

Read More: Words of Encouragement

Leadership Quotes

A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit. – Arnold H. Glasow

Leadership Quotes

If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade. – Tom Peters

Leadership Quotes

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. – Ralph Nader

Leadership Quotes

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. – Henry Kissinger

Leadership Quotes

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

The Most Famous Leadership Quotes

Leadership Quotes

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther. – J. P. Morgan

You manage things; you lead people. – Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act. – Barbara Sher

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. – John Maxwell

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

How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking. – David Joseph Schwartz

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. – Harold S. Geneen

Leadership Quotes

The supreme quality of leadership is integrity. – Unknown

Where there is no vision, the people perish. – Proverbs

Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal. – E. Joseph Cossman

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. – Tom Peters

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it. – Andrew Carnegie

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. – Max DePree

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people. – John D. Rockefeller

The best competition I have is against myself to become better. – Coach Wooden

Leading is a skill, not a gift. You’re not born with it, you learn how. – Seth Godin

What I’ve really learned over time is that optimism is a very, very important part of leadership. – Bob Iger

Inspirational Quotes About Leadership

Leadership Quotes

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. – John C. Maxwell

Everyone has to believe in something. If you want to succeed, believe in you. – Unknown

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. – General George Patton

Always do everything you ask of those you command. – General Patton

A leader should care way more about HOW people are doing rather than HOW they are doing their work. – Perrynoble

The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning. – Pele

Vision can start anywhere. – Jesse Lyn Stoner

You don’t need a title to be a leader. – Multiple Attributions

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – General Norman Schwarzkopf

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. – Dale Carnegie

Success in your personal & business Life doesn’t happen without You. It’s ready when You Are. – Lori Moreno

The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang. – Mary Kay Ash

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. – John Maxwell

It is rare to find a business partner who is selfless. If you are lucky it happens once in a lifetime. – Michael Eisner

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes. – Peter Drucker

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground. – Winston Churchill

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. – Bill Gates

Forgiveness is complete when you don’t bring it up to them, don’t bring it up to others, and don’t bring it up to yourself. – Dave Ferguson

The Best Quotes On Leadership

Leadership Quotes

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully. – Jim Rohn

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. – Andre Malraux

Without initiative, leaders are simply workers in leadership positions. – Bo Bennett

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Maya Angelou

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. – Stephen Covey

I’m blessed to be a blessing to someone else. – Joel Osteen

Leaders learn to leverage the problems that never go away in a way to create progress for the organization. – Andy Stanley

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

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. – Aristotle

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. – Kenneth Blanchard

A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward. – Ovid

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. – Publilius Syrus

I have always supported measures and principles and not men. – Davy Crockett

Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy. – Brian Tracy

Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best. – Chester W. Nimitz

Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. – David Joseph Schwartz

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. – Brian Tracy

Short Quotes On Leadership

leadership quotes

A leader is a dealer in hope. – Napoleon Bonaparte

The undisciplined pursuit of more is how the mighty fall. – Jim Collins

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. – Margaret Fuller

Leadership is influence. – John C. Maxwell

Earn your leadership every day. – Michael Jordan

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. – George Van Valkenburg

Leaders never outgrow the need to change. – John Maxwell

Surround yourself with people who make you better. – Unknown

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. – John F. Kennedy

Don’t find fault, find a remedy. – Henry Ford

Growth inside fuels growth outside. – John Maxwell

Talent is a gift, but the character is a choice. – John Maxwell

High expectations are the key to everything. – Sam Walton

Show me your friend and I will show you your character. – Proverb

I don’t know any other way to lead but by example. – Don Shula

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. – Theodore Roosevelt

The miracle is this, the more we share, the more we have. – Leonard Nimoy

In fair weather prepare for foul. – Thomas Fuller

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed. – General Douglas MacArthur

Education is the mother of leadership. – Wendell Willkie

Great Leadership Quotes

People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. – Thomas Sowell

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. – General George Patton

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. – Peter Drucker

When placed in command, take charge. – Norman Schwarzkopf

Leadership Quotes

Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word. – Jim Rohn

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever. – Thomas Aquinas

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. – Tony Blair

The leader has to be practical & a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary & the idealist. – Eric Hoffer

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. – John Maxwell

Read More: Positive Affirmations

One of the greatest joys of leadership is assembling and knitting together teams of fantastic people. – Bill Hybels

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. – Henry J. Kaiser

Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. – Brian Tracy

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. – Bill Bradley

You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. – Ken Kesey

Good Leadership Quotes For Work

If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right. – Henry Ford

Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts. – Erskine Bowles

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat. – Ronald Reagan

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. – Henry Ward Beecher

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. – Sam Walton

Leadership Quotes

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time. – George W. Bush

What you do has a far greater impact than what you say. – Stephen Covey

Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him. – Aldous Huxley

My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. – General Montgomery

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

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or conclude you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. – Colin Powell

I am Priyanshu the founder of Quotesjin. I am an Engineer by profession but Blogger by passion. I have been doing blogging and affiliate marketing since 2018, and established a few digital online businesses. I am passionate about sharing motivation thoughts and stories to my readers.

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