53 Kick Butt Leadership Quotes
Leadership has different meanings to different people and if you look at some of the world leaders you will notice that they all have their own style of leading people and are all effective in their own way.
I have complied a list of 53 of the best Kick-Butt Leadership quotes that are sure to put your leadership traits into action today.
53 Kick Butt Leadership Quotes
“To lead people, walk beside them “
Lao-tsu
“When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’”
Lao-tsu
“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
“If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall in the ditch.”
Jesus Christ
“Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers.”
Dee Hock
“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”
John Buchan
“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.”
Winston Churchill
“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”
Henry Kissinger
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.”
Hesiod
“Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.”
General Douglas MacArthur
“Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers.
Admiral James B. Stockdale
“Without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance..”
Eric Shinseki
“I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.”
Warren Bennis
“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skilful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Harry Truman
“Leadership is intentional influence.”
Michael McKinney
“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
William Arthur Ward
“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“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
“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.
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Peter F. Drucker
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
Albert Schweitzer
“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.”
John C. Maxwell
“The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.”
Brandon Sanderson
“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”
John C. Maxwell
“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”
Steve Jobs
“A leader… is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”
Nelson Mandela
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”
Napoleon
“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
“I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.”
Robert E. Lee
“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
“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”
Nancy D. Solomon
“In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”
Max De Pree
“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.”
Whoopi Goldberg
“A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others so that they may have the strength to stand on their own.”
Beth Revis
“Always remember, Son, the best boss is the one who bosses the least. Whether it’s cattle, or horses, or men; the least government is the best government.”
Ralph Moody
“If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.”
Brad Szollose
“Leadership is an action, not a position.”
Donald McGannon
“All Leadership is influence.”
John C. Maxwell
“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”
Sam Rayburn
“Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without being humiliated.
Dag Hammarskjöld
“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
“Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.”
Harold Geneen
“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
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
Stephen R. Covey
“Leadership is difficult but it is not complex.”
Michael McKinney
“Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values.”
Mike Vance
“Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated.”
Fred Smith
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
“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