Leadership

Leadership

The way to achieve success is first to have a definite, clear, practical ideal - a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends - wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.
Aristotle 384BC-322BC, Greek philosopher and scientist, student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
George S. Patton, World War II General

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.
Harold S. Geneen 1910-1997, Communications executive described by R.J. Schoenberg as an executive who pursued growth and increased earnings "with no larger vision whatever"

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.
Washington Irving 1783-1859, American author

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
Jesse Jackson 1941-, Civil rights leader with an exceptional drive and empathy for the oppressed

Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people --that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.
Peter Drucker 1909-2005, Management Guru

A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did it themselves.
Lao Tzu c.604BC-531BC, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism

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 1889-1974, American journalist in the New York Herald Tribune, 14 April 1945

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.
André Maurois 1885-1967, French biographer, novelist, and essayist

Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.
Warren G. Bennis 1925-, American scholar, particularly in the field of leadership

I say that over whatever a man may preside, he will, if he knows what he needs, and is able to provide it, be a good president, whether he have the direction of a chorus, a family, a city, or an army.
Socrates 469-399 BC, Ancient Greek ethicist-philosopher

Treating people with respect will gain one wide acceptance and improve the business.
Tao Zhu Gong 500BC, Assistant to the Emperor of Yue, 2nd Business Principle

The greatest power available to man is not to use it.
Meister Eckhart

There are two tragedies in a man`s life. One is not having reached one`s goal and the other is having reached it.
Friedrich Nietzsche 1894-1900, German philosopher, known as the father of nihilism

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, sixteenth American president

Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them.
Stephen Covey, American leadership consultant and writer

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arrive and make them miserable.
Aldous Huxley 1894-1963, English novelist

Leadership is the ability to decide what is to be done and then get others to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890-1969, general and thirty-fourth President of the United States

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.
Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, Emperor of France, One of the greatest military commanders and a risk taking gambler

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
Stephen Covey, American leadership consultant and writer

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
Publilius Syrus ~100 BC

What you think is the top, is only a step.
Seneca 4BC-65AC, Roman writer and moralist

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus c. 60-120, Roman philosopher

Therefore the skilful leader subdues the enemy`s troups without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem.
Sun Tzu c. 490 BC, Chinese military strategist

Vision without action is hallucination.
Manfred Kets de Vries, Dutch Professor and writer on leadership

To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca 5BC-65AD, Roman tragedian, philosopher, and counsellor to Nero

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.
James Russell Lowell 1819-1891, Romantic poet, critic, satirist, writer, diplomat and abolitionist

Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting someone else to do the work.
J.G. Pollard

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Mark Twain 1835-1910, American Humorist and Writer

All of the great leaders have had one thing in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
J.K. Galbraith 1908-, American economist

Know thyself.
Plato 428 BC-347 BC, ancient Greek philosopher

The most important obligation of every leader is to do whatever is in his power to protect and prolong the life of the community, following the order of the universe established by the ancestors and transmitted by tradition. Neglect of this duty has consequences to the authority the leader wields.
Laurenti Magesa, African Writer

The Greeks believed that when a man had too much power for his own good, the Gods ruined him by helping him increase his power at the expense of wisdom... and humanity, until it led automatically to his own destruction.
Thomas Merton

Charisma knows only inner determination and inner restraint... The charismatic leader gains and maintains authority solely by proving his strength in life.
Max Weber 1864-1920, German political economist and sociologist

To lead the people, walk behind them.
Lao Tzu c.604BC-531BC, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism

I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don`t want to do and like it.
Harry S. Truman 1884-1972, 33rd president of the U.S.

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British politician and Prime Minister

What you cannot enforce, do not command.
Sophocles 496-406 BC, ancient Greek playwright

We shape our environments, then our environments shape us.
Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British statesman and writer

I don`t want any "yes-men" around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.
Samuel Goldwyn 1882-1974, American (Polish-born) movie producer

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.
Tony Blair 1953-, British Prime Minister in The Mail on October 2nd, 1994

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
Donald Rumsfeld 1932-, American Republican politician and businessman.

Leadership is not about being nice. Its about being right and being strong.
Paul Keating 1944-, Australian statesman and Prime Minsiter in Time, January 9th, 1995

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, Emperor of France, One of the greatest military commanders and a risk taking gambler

Treating people with respect will gain one wide acceptance and improve the business.
Tao Zhu Gong 500BC, Assistant to the Emperor of Yue, 2nd Business Principle

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
Peter F. Drucker 1909-, American management guru

Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave.
Henry Peter Brougham 1778-1868, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present.
Liu Shao-Chi 1898-1969, Chinese leader and Chairman of the Peoples Republic of China