Leadership Quotes :::
The Best Rulers
Of the best rulers,
The people only know that they exist;
The next best they love and praise
The next they fear;
And the next they revile.
When they do not command the people’s faith,
Some will lose faith in them,
And then they resort to oaths!
But of the best when their task is accomplished,
Their work done,
The people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”
Lao-Tzu
Chinese philosopher
6th century BC
Power and Influence
Power lasts 10 years, influence not more than a hundred.
Korean proverb
Adversity and Power
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln
At First, There's Only Hope
Hope is what you find in the woods when there was nothing before. But as the people began walking in the same place, there appeared the path.
Chinese proverb
Why Change Is Hard
There is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things while those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Why Change Is Necessary
If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.
Jack Welch
Former chairman and CEO, General Electric Corp.
Why Things Suddenly Stop
Unsustainable trends tend not to be sustained.
Herbert Stein
Economist and presidential advisor
Power of Perception
One third of what you see is in front of your eyes. Two-thirds is behind your eyes.
Chinese proverb
We will see it when we believe it.
Saul D. Alinsky
Labor activist
A leader is a man who has the ability to get people to do what they don't want to do and like it.
Harry S Truman
Some Will Never Be Convinced
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die.
Max Planck
Physicist and founder of quantum theory
The Value of Diversity
It is hardly possible to overrate the value . . . of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are famliar. . . . Such communication has always been and is, peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress.
John Stuart Mills
Philosopher and member of the British Parliament
Focus on the "Whats," Not the "Hows"
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
Gen. George S. Patton
A Formula for Intelligence
Perspective/Strong Relationship-Building Skills = +50 IQ points.
Michael Porter
Harvard Business School professor
In Government, It Takes Two
If you have policy without politics, you're ineffective. If you have politics without policy, nothing changes.
Bill Bradley
Former U.S. senator
Why We Plan
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Leadership Show
The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.
Charles De Gaulle
What Leaders Leave Behind
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on. . . . The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
Walter Lippmann
Leader by Default
I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Right Time, Right Leader
The right man comes at the right time.
Italian proverb
Volunteers Are Better than Voters
I don't really believe in democracy. I believe in y'all come.
Andrew Young
Former mayor of Atlanta
Just Fix the Road
(Commenting on the story of the Good Samaritan, who aided a man who'd been assaulted by criminals along a road to Jericho.) I admire the Good Samaritan for picking up people on the side of the road, but I don't want to be the Good Samaritan. I want to fix the road to Jericho, so people don't get beat up there.
Martin Luther King Jr.
(quoted by Andrew Young)
What Will I Do Next?
Unpredictability is the greatest asset a leader can have.
Richard M. Nixon
Wise Men vs. Damned Fools
What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools predicted has come to pass.
Lord Melbourne
Queen Victoria's first prime minister
The Civic Century
The 20th century was the century of business. The next century is going to be the century of the social sector.
Peter Drucker
Where to Find Leaders
Social sector organizations increasingly look to business for leadership models and talent, yet I suspect we will find more true leadership in the social sectors than the business sector.
Jim Collins
Author, Good to Great
Stop Me if You've Heard This Before . . .
People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.
Samuel Johnson
Keep Talking
About the time you are writing a line that you have written so often that you want to throw up, that is the time the American people will hear it.
Richard M. Nixon
We Value Your Input
People say what they like, and then I do what I like.
Frederick the Great
King of Prussia (1740-86)
Don't Just Stand There . . .
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1932
Go Ahead, Make Me
I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Comment to a group of reformers. His point: Until they lead the way, they shouldn't expect leaders to follow.
Life at the Top
One day you're the toast of the town, the next day you're toast.
Alan Simpson
Former U.S. senator
On what's it's like to be in high office in Washington.
Means and Ends
If the end doesn't justify the means, what does?
Robert Moses
New York's legendary development czar and power broker
Err Boldly
When I make a mistake, it's a beaut.
Fiorello LaGuardia
Mayor of New York
On his decision to rename 6th Avenue as the Avenue of the Americas, a name most New Yorkers refuse to use to this day.
How to Predict with Confidence
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Alan Kay
Computer scientist