Quotes About Leadership

The man is the head of the house but the woman is the neck that turns the head.

Great men exist that there may be greater men.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

Napoleon said of Massena, that he was not himself until the battle began to go against him; then, when the dead began to fall in ranks around him, awoke his powers of combination, and he put on terror and victory as a robe. So it is in rugged crises, in unweariable endurance, and in aims which put sympathy out of question, that the angel is shown.

The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

Those who have ruled human destinies, like planets, for thousands of years, were not handsome men.

Peace has its victories but it takes brave men to win them

But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne.

He who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing, reading, and writing in the daily, time-worn yoke of their opinions.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and make a trail.

In a virtuous community, men of sense and of principle will always be placed at the head of affairs. In a declining state of public morals, men will be so blinded to their true interests as to put the incapable and unworthy at the helm. It is therefore vain to complain of the follies or crimes of a government. We must lay our hands on our own hearts and say 'Here is the sin that makes the public sin'.

Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.

If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused. I notice too, that the ground on which eminent public servants urge the claims of popular education is fear: This country is filling up with thousands and millions of voters, and you must educate them to keep them from our throats.

Dónde está el maestro que enseñó a Shakespeare? ¿Dónde el que enseñó a Franklin, a Washington, a Bacon, a Newton? Todo gran hombre es único.

The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss.

Only one competency lasts. It is the ability to create a steady, self-renewing stream of leaders. Money is just a commodity. Talent supplies the edge.

Think of the G3 as the central brain trust of a talent-first organization. (You might want to keep the general counsel or chief risk officer close on big decisions if that suits your business, but it's the ongoing CEO-CFO-CHRO linkage that's crucial.) Effectively deployed, the G3 is the mechanism that will create the future of your organization. It can be the multiplier of your capacity, time, and capability, as illustrated in the following example.

Going on the offense is no longer optional, for one simple reason: defense alone means a shrinking business.

The three processes—people, strategy, and operations— remain the building blocks and heart of good execution.

How you meet your own commitments is important. Are you doing it by draining energy—driving people relentlessly, or burning them out by making impossible demands? Or are you expanding the capacity of the organization by helping people grow and expand their own capacities? In other words, there's a right and a wrong way to delegate.

Leaders who are disciplined, determined, consistent, and persistent in developing these know-hows tend to be successful on a sustained basis. In that sense, leaders are made.

Investing a half hour a day in reading, seven days a week, 365 days a year, is a habit that will bring more value to you and your leadership strength than any other investment of your time. It doesn't have to be books, and if it is, don't brag about how many you've read. Just search for the new ideas, new insights, and new pieces of information.

Recent research suggests that "quality of management" is becoming an increasingly important factor in investor decisions. This may be because investors believe that a company that has a strong and predictable leadership pipeline is more likely to be able to generate sustained earnings growth. For this reason, a company's "leadership brand" can be a very valuable asset in today's investment community.