What is leadership? How would you define it? What are the most important aspects of leadership? What constitute a good leader?
I tried to Google the word leadership and I got about 4,500,000,000 results in 1.7 seconds! Clearly there are lots of different ideas about what is leadership. It’s a difficult concept to define exactly, probably because it means so many things to various people.
The word “leadership” can bring to mind a variety of images to different people. Some associate that word mostly with the images of political leaders, others with those of religious leaders or business executives. Some people respect and appreciate leadership, others are frustrated by the leaders they have encountered in their lives, and have grown resentful of all types of leadership.
But leadership is needed, and the best of them help themselves and others to do the right things. They may set direction, build inspiring visions, organize efficiently, or create something new. The worst of them do just the opposite.
Here are 50 of the best ways I have found to define leadership
1. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” – John 14:6
2. “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
3. “You don’t need a title to be a leader.” –Mark Sanborn
4. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. “–Dwight Eisenhower
5. “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
6. “A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.”–Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
7. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” –Warren Bennis
8. “Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen, despite the obstacles.” –John Kotter
9. “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.” —Bill Bradley
10. “One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.” –Dennis Peer
11. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” –Steve Jobs
12. “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
13. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams
14. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” –Jim Rohn
15. “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” –Peter Drucker
16. “Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.” –J. Donald Walters
17. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” –John Maxwell
18. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” –Napoleon Bonaparte
19. “Leadership is working with and through others to achieve objectives.” –Paul Hersey
20. “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” –Tom Peters
21. “A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” –David R. Gergen
22. “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” –Peter F. Drucker
23. “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” –Stephen Covey
24. “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
25. “Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.” –Erskine Bowles
26. “Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do it.” –Frances Hesselbein
27. “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” –Arnold Glasow
28. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” –Harvey S. Firestone
29. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” –George Smith Patton
30. “Leadership by example is the only kind of real leadership. Everything else is dictatorship.” –Albert Emerson
31. “Leadership is difficult but it is not complex.” –Michael McKinney
32. “Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others.” –Lance Secretan
33. “Leaders aren’t born, they are made.” ―Vince Lombardi
34. “While a good leader sustains momentum, a great leader increases it.” –John C. Maxwell
35. “To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
36. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. —Norman Schwarzkopf
37. “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” —John C. Maxwell
38. “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths. ” –John Zenger
39. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” –General Colin Powell
40. “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” —Max Lucado
41. “A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” —John Maxwell
42. “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
43. “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” —Publilius Syrus
44. “Leadership is influence.” —John C. Maxwell
45. “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” ―Aristotle
46. “But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister” —Matthew 20:26
47. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” —Proverbs 29:18
48. “Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” — General George Patton
49. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” —Jack Welch
50. “Don’t find the fault, find the remedy” — Henry Ford
