Leadership can be a difficult but also extremely rewarding responsibility, but it necessitates ongoing growth and development. Sometimes all it takes is a few wise words to inspire and motivate you to consistently work on becoming a better leader.
Here are 20 inspirational leadership quotes to help you discover and develop your inner leader.
20 Inspirational Leadership Quotes
- “Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.” -Simon Sinek
- “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
- “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” -Arnold H. Glasow
- “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” -Ralph Nader
- “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren Bennis
- “A leader Is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John Maxwell
- “Leadership and learning are indispensable from each other.” -John F. Kennedy
- “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -Jack Welch
- “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” -Warren Bennis
- “Leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex moral relationship between people based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good.” -Joanne Ciulla
- “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
- “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” -Dolly Parton
- “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 Truman
- “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” -Mother Teresa
- “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” -Warren Buffett
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” -Peter F. Drucker
- “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” -Sheryl Sandberg
- “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” -Tom Landry
- “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” -Colin Powell
I hope these inspirational leadership quotes have impacted you as they have for me over the years.