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Leadership QuotesOne of the most important skills you need as a leader is the ability to listen.
A King, in order to be a true leader, must listen with ears, eyes, and heart ... giving undivided attention to the people.
A leader's dynamic does not come from special powers. It comes from a strong belief in a purpose and a willingness to express that conviction.
- Kouzes & Posner
The beaver is very skilled at its craft. It knows exactly what to do to fix a dam. The last thing it needs is someone on the bank shouting out dam instructions.
Empowerment: Recognizing that people already have power through their knowledge, experience and motivation, and then creating an environment that encourages letting that power out.
Truly great leaders spend as much time collecting and acting upon feedback as they do providing it.
- Alexander Lucia
The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he/she wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Which way did they go? How many were there? How fast were they going? I must find them; I am their leader.
If leaders are careless about basic things - telling the truth, respecting moral codes, proper professional conduct - who can believe them on other issues?
- James L Hayes
A loyal constituency is won when people ... judge the leader to be capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs.
- John Gardner
Leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It is a process ordinary managers use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others.
Ultimately, leadership development is a process of self development.
How do they train killer whales to jump over the rope at Sea World? Do they hang a rope 20 feet over the pool and then shout to the whale "Up, up, up!" No. They start with the rope under the water. When the whale swims over the rope, it gets rewarded. Then the rope is gradually raised. Each time the whale swims over it, again, a reward is given. How often do you give a "reward" to those with whom you work? Only when the final goal is reached or do you give praise along the way as incremental progress is made?
- favorite story of Ken Blanchard who has worked with the Sea World staff in San Diego
Leadership Characteristics - Top Ten List
1. Visionary
2. Integrity
3. Consistency
4. Coach/Facilitator
5. Accessibility
6. Flexibility
7. Courage
8. Over-Communicates
9. Positive Role Model
10. Inspirational
What's important as a leader is not what happens when you are there. It's what happens when you're NOT there.
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
- Ken Blanchard
Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and actions.
- Harold Geneen
The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.
- Lao Tzu, 6th Century BC
Leadership flows from the minds of followers more than from the titles of leaders, more from the perception of willing followers than from anointment.
- Lane Secretan
The motivating team leader is that one person with a dream for the future.
- Dr. Losoncy
What gets measured gets done; what gets recognized gets done even better.
A real leader, through actions and words, has the ability to motivate others to their highest level of achievement; then gives them the opportunity and the freedom to grow.
The leader acts with little motion, instructs not with words but by deeds, keeps informed but seldom interferes.
Leaders manage the dream. All leaders have the capacity to create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then to translate that vision into reality.
- Warren Bennis
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.
- Max DePree
Leaders have a significant role in creating the state of mind that is the society. They can serve as symbols of the moral unity of the society. They can express the values that hold the society together. Most important, they can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations, carry them above the conflicts that team a society apart, and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts.
- John Gardner
Leadership is just another word for training.
- Lance Secretan
A company is like a ship. Everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
- Morris Wilks
There is a difference between leadership and management. Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality, vision and training. Its practice is an art. Management is a science of the mind. Managers are necessary; leaders are indispensable.
A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, Not so good when people acclaim him, Worst when they despise him. 'Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you;' But of a good leader, who talks little, When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, They will all say, 'we did this ourselves.
- Lao Tzu
Law of Leadership: A successful team with 100 members has 100 leaders.
- Lance Secretan
The best leaders are clear. They continually light the way, and in the process, let each person know that what they do makes a difference.
When team members regard each other with mutual respect, differences are utilized and are considered strengths rather than weaknesses. The role of the leader is to foster mutual respect and build a complementary team where each strength is made productive and each weakness irrelevant.
- Stephen Covey
The essence of leadership is the capacity to build and develop the self-esteem of the workers.
- Irwin Federman
Leaders need to strike a balance between action and patience.
- Doug Smith
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
Leaders are like eagles, they don't flock; you find them one at a time.
Managers have employees, leaders have followers.
- Workplace 2000
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success, leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
- Stephen Covey
Leading is Influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion.
- Warren Bennis
Successful leadership requires positive self-regard fused with optimism about a desired outcome.
- Warren Bennis
Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms.
- Warren Bennis
If you think about it, people love others not for who they are, but for how they make us feel. We willingly follow others for much the same reason -- it makes us feel good to do so.
- Warren Bennis
Leadership is like beauty; it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it.
- Warren Bennis
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can be and should be, and he will become as he can and should be.
- Goethe
Effective team leaders adjust their style to provide what the group can't provide for itself.
- Kenneth Blanchard
Genuine leadership inspires, encourages and leads.
The signs of outstanding leadership are found among the followers.
- Max DePree
To get a feel for the true essence of leadership, assume everyone who works for you is a volunteer.
- Kouzes and Posner
Every leader needs to look back once in awhile to make sure he has followers.
- Kouzes and Posner
The mediocre leader tells The good leader explains The superior leader demonstrates The great leader inspires.
- Buchholz and Roth
Ineffective leaders don't react to problems, they respond to problems and learn.
- Danny Cox
The level of morale is a good barometer of how each of your people is experiencing your leadership.
- Danny Cox
Effective team leaders realize they neither know all the answers, nor can they succeed without the other members of the team.
- Katzenbach & Smith
If I, the group leader, expect you, the group member, to be weak, then I elicit the weak part of you. If I expect you to be able to cope, I elicit your strength.
- Will Schutz
We are only as effective as our people's perception of us.
- Danny Cox
Nobody in your organization will be able to sustain a level of motivation higher than you have as their leader.
- Danny Cox
When you treat people like adults, 95% act like adults.
- Roger Gasaway, GE
We are reluctant to let go of the belief that if I am to care for something I must control it.
- Peter Block
If you need ownership and responsibility from core workers, patriarchy can't get you there.
- Peter Block
Communicate everything to your associates. The more they know, the more they care. Once they care, there is no stopping them.
- Sam Walton
You very best people will respond to what you actually do, what you evidently measure, and what you openly reward -- every single time.
- Betsy Sanders
Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.
- John Whitmore
The most vital task of the leader is to motivate, inspire, empower and encourage the team's primary resource -- the unlimited, creative human potential to find better ways.
- Dr. Lewis Losoncy
Team leader's encouragement = Team's courage to believe.
- Dr. Lewis Losoncy
Manageers manage people and the human effort. Leaders focus on the deeper, non-physical dimension -- energy, heart and spirit. Managers deal in organizational form, leaders embrace the unified culture and community.
- Jack Hawley
If you want someone to develop a specific trait, treat them as though they already had it.
- Goethe
95% of American managers today say the right thing. 5% actually do it.
- James O'Toole
Leadership is an activity -- an influence process in which an individual gains the trust and commitment of others and without recourse to formal position or authority moves the group to the accomplishment of oneor more tasks.
- Dinkmeyer and Eckstein
The key element in good business management is emotional attitude. The rest is mechanics.
- Harvey Geenan
Managers control. Leaders create commitment.
- Jonh Zenger
If he works for you, you work for him.
- Japanese proverb
If you really want people to respond to your leadership, you have to have a personal relationship with them. they need to know you're dependable and that you'll be there if they have a problem. That's personal power to me.
- Noreen Haffner
The way to make people shine is to let them be the gems that they are, and just provide a good setting and a little polish.
Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing.
- Warren Bennis
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
- Plaque on Ted Turner's desk
Be ENTHUSIASTIC as a leader. You can't light a fire with a wet match!
Questions/Comments: jwaits@ag.arizona.edu