In ancient China, the legendary leader, Sun Tzu, imparted timeless wisdom on leadership. Facing skepticism from King Helü of Wu, Sun Tzu was challenged to demonstrate his leadership prowess. He chose concubines to train as soldiers, showcasing his ability to transform raw potential into a disciplined force. By communicating strategy effectively and adapting tactics to individual strengths, Sun Tzu exemplified leadership. His success lay not only in victory but also in instilling loyalty and respect among his troops.
Leadership is not merely about authority but about understanding the strengths of those you lead and empowering them to excel. Sun Tzu’s story teaches us that true leaders inspire greatness, even in the unlikeliest of circumstances. They lead by example, cultivate trust, and harness the collective power of their team. In today’s world, Sun Tzu’s principles remain relevant, reminding us that effective leadership transcends time and culture.
Unlock your leadership potential and inspire greatness with these powerful motivational quotes about leadership
Motivational Quotes About Leadership To Keep You Inspired
1. “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.” – John Maxwell
2. “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, former first lady of the United States
3. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy
4. “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” —Arnold H. Glasow
5. “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” —James Humes
6. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” – Gen. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State
7. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
8. “Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain, author
9. “In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up and goes.” – John Erskine, author
10. “The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special.” – Bill Taylor, from the article “Do You Pass the Leadership Test?”
11. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
12. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” —Henry Kissinger
13. “A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” – Joe DiMaggio, former New York Yankees outfielder & Hall of Fame Baseball Player
14. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh
15. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonaparte, military leader
16. “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people.” —Mahatma Gandhi
17. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” —Bill Gates
18. “Leaders grasp nettles.” – David Ogilvy
19. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward, author
20. “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else—through hard work.” —Vince Lombardi
21. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder
22. “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see and who sees before others see.” – Leroy Eimes, author and leadership expert
23. “To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.” —Pat Riley
24. “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, writer, reporter and political commentator
25. “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, former first lady of the United States
26. “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
27. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
28. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” —Steve Jobs
29. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” – Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
30. “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
31. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
32. “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.” —Brian Tracy
33. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch, former GE chairman and CEO
34. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” – Seth Godin
35. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” —John F. Kennedy
36. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
37. “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh
38. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” —John C. Maxwell
39. “Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
40. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margeret Mead
41. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” – Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State
42. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
43. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower
44. “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” – President Theodore Roosevelt
45. “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
46. “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.”– President Ronald Reagan
47. “Leadership is the key to 99% of all successful efforts.” —Erskine Bowles
48. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
49. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
50. “It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State
51. “Education is the mother of leadership.” —Wendell Willkie
52. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
53. “Leadership is the capacity to translate a vision into reality.” —Warren Bennis
54. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” —Gen. Colin Powell
55. “Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality.” – Warren G. Bennis, founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California
56. “Make sure you’re not just waiting for someone else to fix things, or hoping that things will improve … Figure out what’s going on and make a plan to improve things.” – Kenneth W. Thomas, author
57. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams
58. “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.” —Bernard Baruch
59. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” – Gen. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State
60. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” —Harvey S. Firestone
61. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” – Henry Kissinger, former U.S. National Security Advisor & Secretary of State
62. “Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” – Unknown
63. “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
64. Quotes about the origins of leadership
65. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – President John Quincy Adams
66. “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” – John Buchan, novelist, historian and politician
67. “Earn your leadership every day.” – Michael Jordan, former NBA basketball player
68. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.” — Stephen Covey, author, businessman and speaker
69. “To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’” – Lao Tzu, philosopher
70. “The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.” – George Orwell, author [Read Related Article: 5 Tips for Guiding Your Team Through a Rough Patch]
71. “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” —Margaret Fuller
72. “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
73. “Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.” —Jesse Jackson
74. “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, poet and philosopher
75. “There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage.” —Chan Master Fuchan Yuan
76. “A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.” – Jim Rohn
77. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” – Arnold Glasow, humorist and author
78. “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” – Thomas Jefferson
79. “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” —John Peter Zenger
80. “Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence.” Lisa M. Amos
You may also like:
