The Best Quotes on Leadership

The best quotes on leadership from Presidents, CEOs, entrepreneurs, military leaders, sports stars, coaches, and more.

“Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” ~George S. Patton Jr.

“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” ~Harry S. Truman

If you don’t believe in yourself why is anyone else going to believe in you? ~Tom Brady, Greatest NFL Quarterback.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ~Michael Jordan

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” ~Oprah Winfrey

“Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” ~Margaret Thatcher

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” ~Nelson Mandela

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” ~Bill Gates

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted,or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

“Earn your leadership every day.” ~Michael Jordan

“The most valuable player is the one who makes the most players valuable.” ~Peyton Manning, Hall of Fame Quarterback.

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” ~Sam Walton, Walmart Founder.

“You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” ~Wayne Gretzky

“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

“Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And rent is due every day.” ~J.J. Watt

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” ~Douglas MacArthur

“The ability to learm is the most important quality a leader can have.” ~Sheryl Sandberg

“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.” ~Terry Bradshaw

“Don’t find the fault, find the remedy” ~Henry Ford

“The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” ~Tony Blair

“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

“Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” ~Seth Godin

“The price of greatness is responsibility.” ~Winston Churchill

“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

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” ~Vince Lombardi

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

“A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.” ~John Wooden

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” ~Peter F. Drucker

“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

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” ~Steve Jobs

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.” ~Lou Holtz

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” ~Muhammad Ali

“People who succeed at the highest level are not lucky; they’re doing something differently than everyone else.” ~Tony Robbins

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ~Abraham Lincoln

“There’s a better say to do it – find it!” ~Thomas Edison

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” ~Jack Welch

“I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn’t think I’d play one year in the NFL, and now I’m going on my 17th year.” ~Tom Brady

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” ~Wayne Gretzky

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“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

“It’s not the will to win that matters. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” ~Paul “Bear” Bryant

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

“Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself.” ~Roger Staubach

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” ~Charles Darwin

“The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” ~Steve Young

“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” ~Andrew Carnegie

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ~John F. Kennedy

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” ~Tom Landry, former Dallas Cowboys Football Coach.

“I was 0-11 as a starter, and there were times when I walked off the field wondering if I’d ever win a game in the NFL.” ~Troy Aikman

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” ~John D. Rockefeller

“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”
~Michael Jordan

“If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.” ~Bear Bryant

“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” ~Jerry Rice

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” ~Vince Lombardi

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~Thomas A. Edison

What are your favorite quotes on leadership?