20 Inspirational Quotes on Leadership

So what makes a good leader? Is it compassion, vision, courage, connection, accountability, responsibility, self-awareness, learning, encouragement or ? What are the values that come to mind for you? Then once you know what leadership is, how do you embody it? Also – who has inspired you the most with their leadership over the years?

The following quotes may inspire you to look at leadership in more depth and identify what it is for you – enjoy!

1. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ~ John Quincy Adams
2. “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
3. “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
4. “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 humour, but without folly.” ~ Jim Rohn
5. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
6. “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I’. And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I’. They don’t think ‘I’. They think ‘we’; they think ‘team’. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” ~ Peter F. Drucker
7. “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
8. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
9. “A leader is someone who demonstrates what’s possible.” ~ Mark Yarnell
10. “The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.” ~ Felix Adler
11. “I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of everybody.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
12. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ~ John F. Kennedy
13. “A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.” ~ Unknown
14. “Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down. Respect for one’s superiors; care for one’s crew.” ~ Grace Hopper
15. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” ~ Winston Churchill
16. “When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.” ~ Lao Tzu
17. “A leader leads by example not by force.” ~ Sun Tzu
18. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” ~ Brian Tracy
19. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
20. “The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.” ~ Andrew Carnegie

Which quote inspired you the most?

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