Leadership Quotes & Leadership Roles

By Jeff Nelson

Who is the first person that comes to your mind when you think of someone in a leadership role?  Maybe it’s our country’s president, the CEO of a company, the quarterback of your favorite football team or, if you think like me, your wife!  (Yeah, I’m not afraid to admit that she’s the one calling the shots most of the time.)

People in leadership roles are all around us and in our daily lives.  Remember that cruise that you took or the recent flight you boarded?  Well, the captain was in the wheel house steering the ship for all his vacationers, and the pilot was guiding the plane to ensure his passengers made it to their destination safely.

What are some of your favorite leadership quotes? 

Here are a couple of mine.

I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. – General George S. Patton

One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training.  And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal. – Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (pictured right)

Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality. – Warren G. Bennis

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

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. —Herbert Swope

What you do has far greater impact than what you say. —Stephen Covey

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership. –Dwight Eisenhower

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. —Maya Angelou

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

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. —Colin Powell

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. —Tom Peters

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

Comment with some of your favorite leadership quotes!