33 Inspiring Leadership Quotes

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Don’t just read them. 
Use them to make a difference in your team, your business, and your life.

I'd like to challenge you to find 2 or 3 quotes that define the true meaning of leadership for you, and place them where you can be reminded daily. 

Use them to inspire and motivate you to be the leader you want to be starting this very day.

Your intention, attention, and attitude will define your ability to show up for yourself and your people in the best way possible. 

1
"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

2
“Leadership is an action, not a position.” 
Donald McGannon

3
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." 
John Quincy Adams

4          
"Wisdom equals knowledge plus courage. You have to not only know what to do and when to do it, but you have to also be brave enough to follow through." Jarod Kintz

5        
“The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.” 
Kenneth H. Blanchard

6        
"Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems."
Brian Tracy

7        
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

8        
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." 
Dwight D. Eisenhower

9          
"Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determinations." 
John Seaman Garns

10      
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." 
John F. Kennedy

11      
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Winston Churchill

12        
"Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."
Sheryl Sandberg

13      
"Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar." 
Orrin Woodward

14      
"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.

15      
"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy."
Norman Schwarzkopf

16      
"A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit."
John Maxwell

17      
“If you can’t swallow your pride, you can’t lead. Even the highest mountain had animals that step on it.”  Jack Weatherford

18      
"One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility." 
Eleanor Roosevelt

19      
"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

20      
"Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another." John C. Maxwell

21     
"Power isn't control at all--power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn't someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own." 
Beth Revis

22      
"A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together." 
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

23      
"To lead people, walk behind them." 
Lao Tzu

24      
"Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity." 
Reed Markham

25     
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." 
Albert Schweitzer

26      
"I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re a leader and you’re the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems." 
Jack Welch

27      
"The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow." 
Seth Godin

28      
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." 
Peter Drucker

29      
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." 
Warren Bennis

30      
"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

31      
"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." 
Jack Welch

32      
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." 
Eleanor Roosevelt

33      
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." 
Mahatma Gandhi

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