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

  1. “Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge.” -Simon Sinek
  2. “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
  3. “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
  4. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” -Ralph Nader
  5. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” -Warren Bennis
  6. “A leader Is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” -John Maxwell
  7. “Leadership and learning are indispensable from each other.” -John F. Kennedy
  8. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -Jack Welch
  9. “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
  10. “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
  11. “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
  12. “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
  13. “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
  14. “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” -Mother Teresa
  15. “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
  16. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” -Peter F. Drucker
  17. “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
  18. “True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” -Sheryl Sandberg
  19. “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
  20. “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.