Sayings About Leadership

Just because you are a boss doesn't mean you have leadership skills.Robert Byron

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.Adlai Stevenson

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.>Albert Einstein

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.Barack Obama

You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.Dwight D. Eisenhower

What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it. Elizabeth Dole

I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses -- you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks. Eugene V. Debs

The only safe ship in a storm is leadership. Faye Wattleton

A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice. James Callaghan

If you are not willing to give, not willing to teach, not willing to use failures as best teachers than you will never be able to develop leadership skills. Byron Pulsifer

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things. Jesse Jackson

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. Peter Drucker