Guest Post by Alex Strike

Quotes on LeadershipI bet, young leaders read a lot. They are hungry, they need more information to learn and follow, they search for inspiration and practical advice on leadership, they keen on everything that could develop them and make them much better than they are now.

I like reading. I’ve read many books on leadership, and some of them were really worth checking. Most of them give practical advice on becoming a leader and improving your leadership skills. But are you sure you know WHO a real leader is and HOW he should look like?

Advice of all writing gurus will not help you understand this, if they are not true leaders themselves.  And before following all their practical tips on where to go and what to start with, every Millennial would better listen to real experts on leadership in order to see the nature of a true leader and understand whether he is ready to work hard to become one of them.

Here are 25 inspiring quotes to help you understand a leader better:

1 – “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” — Vince Lombardi

2 – “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” — John C. Maxwell

3 – “Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.” — Warren G. Bennis

4 – “The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.” — John C. Maxwell

5 – “Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.” — Warren G. Bennis

6 – “Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.” — Warren G. Bennis

7 – “Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.” — Simon Sinek

8 – “Leaders lead but in the end it’s the people who deliver.” — Tony Blair

9 – “Good leaders must first become good servants.” — Robert Greenleaf

10 – “Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they’ve never seen before, something that does not yet exist.” — Rosabeth Moss Kanter

11 – “Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.” — Tom Peters

12 – “There are a lot of people who call themselves teachers or leaders, but they’re really just propagandists.” — Mos Def

13 – “Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.” — Pete Hoekstra

14 -“Throughout history, great leaders have known the power of humor.” — Allen Klein

15 – “Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.” — John P. Kotter

16 – “Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.” — Michael Porter

17 – “Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present.” — Rudy Giuliani

18 – “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

19 – “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” — Warren Bennis

20 = “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” — John Maxwell

21 – “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” — Peter Drucker

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

23 – “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

24 – “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” — General Dwight Eisenhower

25 – “Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.” ― Nelson Mandela

Leadership for Millennials

Do you recognize yourself here? Can you call yourself a true leader after reading all those quotes?  Regardless of your answer, here is a wonderful saying of Abraham Lincoln to finish this article with:

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”

And this is true indeed.

What quotes on leadership would you add into the mix?

 

Guest Author

AlexAlex Strike is a freelance blog writer of Bid4Papers, a company that helps young people deal with their academic papers and understand their needs better. Alex is a big fan of reading, and he is always ready to help everyone with writing.