Quotes About Leadership

Dictators and tyrants are the ones who lead their people over a cliff.

Over the past decade or so we have witnessed a fundamental change in the way our government sees itself. We have become a mirror-image of the old Soviet Union and China models, where the people exist to serve the state. Today, in America, our leaders do not believe they work for us—rather, they see themselves as queen bees, ensconced in Washington, while we workers devote our lives to paying taxes. We are nothing more than pollen collectors to them. And, if need be, we are disposable.

true leader exhibited five essential characteristics: intelligence, commitment, integrity, courage, and resourcefulness.

C. Barber's Nehemiah and the Dynamics of Effective Leadership

Where there are kings, there must be the greatest cowards. For men's souls are enslaved and refuse to run risks readily and recklessly to increase the power of somebody else. But independent people, taking risks on their own behalf and not on behalf of others, are willing and eager to go into danger, for they themselves enjoy the prize of victory.

If you don't have true, deep, enduring conviction about the importance of the change you're pursuing, you will be buffeted, worn down, ground down, and diverted at those critical points where leadership is the only force that keeps the change moving. The biggest mistakes that I see come during those points. At root, the mistakes arise from the dissipation of conviction—leadership and management conviction.

Bold, breakthrough change requires leaders at all levels who can demonstrate courage and inspiration.

Leadership without perspective and point of view isn't leadership—and of course it must be your own perspective, your own point of view. You cannot borrow a point of view any more than you can borrow someone's eyes. It must be authentic, and if it is, it will be original, because you are an original.

In Emerson's words, "A great style of hero draws equally all classes, all the extremes of society, till we say the very dogs believe in him.

After the devastation wrought by the Yeltsin era, almost any new leader was likely to be perceived as a potential savior. Russians saw in Putin what they wanted him to be, rather than what he was. He also took power at a moment when the Russian economy started to expand.

Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others.

Gunpei Yokoi, asked his boss, 'What should I make?' Nintendo chief executive Hiroshi Yamauchi replied, 'Something great.' Game Over Nintendo's Battle to Dominate Videogames

If Michael Steele doesn't make you sad, well, then there's radio host Rush Limbaugh, no longer content with wanting the President to fail, Rush is now calling out Mr. Obama as a girly man.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. —NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI

Leaders of the world, my message to you is simple: to achieve universal peace and understanding on this planet you have only to speak plainly, even though you may look foolish. This is a thousand times better than looking good and talking nonsense.

Not that Marcus had any problems with Mexicans, seeing as they had a common enemy in the Orange One

Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan - a Mount Rushmore of incompetence.

The failure of world leaders to act on the critical issue of global warming is often blamed on economic considerations.

If America wants to retain its position as a global power, its president must listen to the people and show strong leadership at this turning point in human history.

Most North Americans know that human-caused global warming is real, even if political leaders don't always reflect or act on that knowledge.

But, as Eric Hoffer once observed, aspiring leaders cannot create mass movements unless conditions are historically ripe.

Authority, I say, is held by a person or persons who lead humans to a fuller exercise of their freedom to accomplish human tasks.

Robert Kennedy was inspired to take on organized crime by watching the landmark movie On the Waterfront.

The first thing I am going to tell my successor is, don't trust the military men – even on military matters." JFK