Quotes & Sayings About Bad Leadership

Sudden shifts and changes are no bad preparation for political life. — Charles Dickens

Anyone's World can ONLY be as good, bad or BIG as their IMAGINATION...!
Nothing less, nothing more..! — Abha Maryada Banerjee

If 'pleasing the people' is the only criterion (of a 'big' leader), then going to war or pretending to go to war or simulating outrage and bad mouthing states you can do nothing about, is the playbook for you. — Khaled Ahmed

Everybody in the world is capable of democratic development. Some people in the world are unlucky enough to get stuck with really bad political leadership and with really bad political institutions. — Condoleezza Rice

There isn't good or bad Leadership. There is Leadership or there is not. You are Leading or you are not. — Chris Whipp

Slipping into bad attitudes and habits is like a beautiful queen growing older and uglier compared to the defined mission and personal standards. Time and again everyone who is serious about making their success more deliberate needs to stop by the mirror in their own mind and ask, "Mirror, mirror in my mind, am I still on course to succeed in life? — Archibald Marwizi

But what if absolute consistency on any issue from the left or the right, religious or secular, is an indication of mediocre intelligence and a lack of intellectual honesty? What if the world is a complex place? What if leadership requires flexibility? What if ideology is a bad substitute for common sense? What if ideological consistency, let alone "purity," is a sign of small-mindedness, maybe even stupidity? — Anonymous

Leadership - in both the Service and the administration - often conveyed the message that bad behavior was truly bad only if it made headlines. I called it the Caesar mentality: Do as I say, not as I do, or off with your head. — Gary J. Byrne

People have not made the connection that the more of us there are, the more greenhouse gases go into the atmosphere. The Chinese have. They, unlike us, have a population policy. The right wingers just don't understand that the country they're in is probably the most overpopulated in the world, the one doing most of the destruction, and the one with horrendously bad leadership. — Paul R. Ehrlich

Good leadership is pervasive, persuasive, and persistent. Bad leadership is poisoned with pedanticism, posturing, self-importance. — Marcia Whicker

If the only thing that you are good at is convincing others that you are good, then being in biz with you is bad experience. — Orrin Woodward

Reprogram your life and mind-set by replacing the bad with the positive, the weakness with the strength. — Archibald Marwizi

America is just so weird in what they think is right and wrong. Like, I was watching 'Breaking Bad' the other day, and they were cooking meth. I could literally cook meth because of that show. It's a how-to. And then they bleeped out the word 'fk'. And I'm like, really? They killed a guy, and disintegrated his body in acid, but you're not allowed to say 'fk'? It's like when they bleeped 'molly' at the VMAs. Look what I'm doing up here right now, and you're going to bleep out 'molly'? — Miley Cyrus

We can influence people for bad or good. — Johnny Hunt

A good leader takes care of those in their charge. A bad leader takes charge of those in their care. — Simon Sinek

That's good advice for any young person to remember who aspires to leadership in corporate or public life. Develop a thick skin when it comes to the press. Remember you're never as bad-or as good-as the press says you are. — William Schreyer

For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, 'holds office'; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve. — John F. Kennedy

If a preacher tells you how God says you are, I don't see how you can say that's bad preaching. — Johnny Hunt

Bad leadership is an oxymoron. — Joseph C. Rost

I have found success is ultimately realized by people who make more right choices ... and recover quickly from their bad choices. — David Cottrell

If this were a courageous country,
it would ask Gloria to lead it
since she is sane and funny and beautiful and smart
and the National Leaders we've always had
are not.
When I listen to her talk about women's rights
children's rights
men's rights
I think of the long line of Americans
who should have been president, but weren't.
Imagine Crazy Horse as president. Sojourner Truth.
John Brown. Harriet Tubman. Black Elk or Geronimo.
Imagine President Martin Luther King confronting
the youthful "Oppie" Oppenheimer. Imagine President
Malcolm X going after the Klan. Imagine President Stevie
Wonder dealing with the "Truly Needy."
Imagine President Shirley Chisholm, Ron Dellums, or
Sweet Honey in the Rock
dealing with Anything.
It is imagining to make us weep with frustration,
as we languish under real estate dealers, killers,
and bad actors. — Alice Walker

Good leaders sacrifice for others to survive; bad leaders sacrifice others to survive — Saji Ijiyemi

Bad leadership during the past years has cast on our Party the shadow of great and grave burdens. — Janos Kadar

People who appear to be resisting change may simply be the victim of bad habits. Habit, like gravity, never takes a day off. — Paul Gibbons

...The happy Warrior... is he... whose powers shed round him in the common strife, or mild concerns of ordinary life, a constant influence, a peculiar grace; but who, if he be called upon to face some awful moment to which Heaven has joined great issues, good or bad for human kind, is happy as a lover; and attired with sudden brightness, like a man inspired; and, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law in calmness made, and sees what he foresaw; or if an unexpected call succeed, come when it will, is equal to the need: he who, though thus endued as with a sense and faculty for storm and turbulence, is yet a soul whose master-bias leans to homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes; sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be, are at his heart; and such fidelity it is his darling passion to approve; more brave for this, that he hath much to love:- — William Wordsworth

Leadership responsibility: If you own a biz, you're the head of the org. Good or bad, your company will LOOK and ACT like you do. — Dave Ramsey

When I hear bad news I look at it as another leadership test that will determine how successful Go Daddy will become. So I no longer dread it. Instead, I enjoy the game of finding the very best way to deal with it, and take great satisfaction in having a hand in resolving the issues that come my way. — Bob Parsons

The best thing you can give as a leader is a reason to trust. People want to trust. They're hungry for it. But they're selective. They'll only give it to a motivator, a communicator, a teacher, a real person. Someone who in good times and bad always does the right thing. — Jeffrey R. Immelt

Most of us want to be authentic. Yet, we are not who we think we are. We are made up of a rich array of facets and possibilities, many of which we ignore because we label them as "bad". We create a cardboard cutout image of ourselves to look good to others. The discord between who we are and the image we have to live up to slowly kills our aliveness. When we suppress parts of ourselves, it lowers our mojo, sense of fulfillment, leadership effectiveness and impact in the workplace. — Henna Inam

You don't need fashion designers when you are young. Have faith in your own bad taste. Buy the cheapest thing in your local thrift shop - the clothes that are freshly out of style with even the hippest people a few years older than you. Get on the fashion nerves of your peers, not your parents - that is the key to fashion leadership. Ill-fitting is always stylish. But be more creative - wear your clothes inside out, backward, upside down. Throw bleach in a load of colored laundry. Follow the exact opposite of the dry cleaning instructions inside the clothes that cost the most in your thrift shop. Don't wear jewelry - stick Band-Aids on your wrists or make a necklace out of them. Wear Scotch tape on the side of your face like a bad face-lift attempt. Mismatch your shoes. Best yet, do as Mink Stole used to do: go to the thrift store the day after Halloween, when the children's trick-or-treat costumes are on sale, buy one, and wear it as your uniform of defiance. — John Waters

In (hyper-loyal) cultures, loyalty is so highly prized that it covers a multitude of leadership sins. I've seen numerous bad leaders cover their ineptitude by stressing the importance of loyalty over competence. They teach that loyalty is more important than excellence and they use that idea to distract the team from their own inability to perform. — Phil Cooke

Psychological pseudoscience dies hard, especially when there are commercial interests at stake. — Paul Gibbons

Bad timekeeping will suck the life out of your bank account. — Colin Myles

On the face of it, these look like bad times for Labour and for Ed Miliband's leadership. There seems to be no strategy, no narrative and little energy. Old faces from the Brown era still dominate the shadow cabinet and they seem stuck in defending Labour's record in all the wrong ways: we didn't spend too much money, we'll cut less fast and less far, but we can't tell you how. — Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman

One thing is undeniably clear. We have all had bad experiences, we have all had tragedies in our lives which help to shape who we are. — J. Loren Norris

We are witnessing the total collapse of a bad idea. Obamaism, a quasi-socialist commitment to a more powerful government at home and an abdication of American leadership around the world, is being exposed as a historic calamity. It is fueling domestic fear and global disorder and may well lead to a world war. — Michael Patrick Goodwin

What did Bush do on 9/11? He ran away and hid. Even Reagan knew more about leadership than that, and he was as bad a symbol of America as I can think of, off-hand. But at least he's been in enough cowboy movies to know he had to come out and stand on top of the rubble and be seen shaking his fist or something. — George Clooney

Those occupying leadership roles who completely lack integrity are what we call 'Blind shepherds'. They are not really 'bad' leaders, because they are not leaders at all: they are misleaders. — John Adair

The masses who complain about bad leadership must first check their unbiased choices. — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I had to make a choice, either take care of my family and become a good son, or be a bad son and start working towards constructing a world of harmony and peace. I chose the later. — Abhijit Naskar

Ronald Reagan makes me proud to be an American. His intelligence, capability, and Christian brotherhood are so inspiring and his way of leadership is just superb. I consider myself lucky to have been his leading lady in The Bad Man and a short subject reel and as a nation all together we are beyond fortunate to have the leadership of such fine people as the Reagan's. — Laraine Day

What matters is working with a few close friends, people you respect, knowing that if times did turn bad these people would hold together. — Richard Branson

Two main definitions of a true leader; His presence is noticed and his absence is felt ... ! — Israelmore Ayivor

Bad Culture is the contaminated oxygen your staff breath, as they get indoctrinated by your limiting context. — Tony Dovale

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics. — Barack Obama

If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff — Geoff Dyer

One or two bad teachers is a problem with the teachers. A school with many bad teachers is a problem of leadership. — Andy Hargreaves

Good general differ from bad generals only in the degree to which they resist the psychopathology of the very organization they serve. Norman Dixon — Patrick Hennessey

Indira was surrounded by people who had given up hope, who blamed their own misery on the influence of Christianity and western cultures, and yet, literally in the midst of squalor, her family had created a place of real beauty. It really makes you stop and think. Uncle Google should be spitting out eight hundred million things American schools have done right. The fact things are so screwed up makes no sense. If you believe Uncle Google, then we've done the exact opposite from Indira's family - in the land of hope and plenty we've created a place that's ugly. We have so much. Can things really be so bad? Maybe we can't fix our schools because as individuals we've never truly been broken. Or maybe Chinese lanterns make everyone wax philosophical. — Tucker Elliot

If we're not ready for leadership or don't want to be the leader, then we need to focus on our followership skills that relate to a bad leader or select another leader that we think would do a better job than we would. — Kurt Madden

If we throw judgments out, that is exactly what will return to us. What we give is exactly what we will receive. It doesn't matter if we throw out good or bad. It all comes back. It is a spiritual law. — Sandra M. Michelle

Common sense was exactly what kingship, almost by definition, lacked: when the king's orders were executed no one dared to tell him honestly how they had turned out. With the absolute powers bestowed by kingship came an arrogance, a ruthlessness, an inflexibility, a habit of compulsion, an unwillingness to listen to reason, that no small community would have endured from any of its members-though the aggressive and humanly disagreeable qualities that make for such ambitious leadership might be found anywhere-as Margaret Mead discovered among the Mundugumor, whose leaders were known to the community as "really bad men," aggressive, gluttonous for power and prestige. — Lewis Mumford

When success is internalized, no situation, no matter how bad, can convince you that you will not be able to attain your goal. You become adamant and refuse to give up. — Archibald Marwizi

Just stamping out anti-science and bad science will eliminate an enormous amount of business waste — Paul Gibbons

We need a president who will lead with a stronger, more consistent foreign policy. We also need our commander in chief to put more faith in military leadership who have all of the combat experience. It's bad policy to try to micromanage too much operationally and tactically from a desk in the Oval Office. — Lee Zeldin

When you know every well what to do and how to do it, your attitude determines how well you will have it done! — Israelmore Ayivor

The difference between the 'cost' and 'price' of life's learnings..
'Cost' is calculated over a period of happenings, good, bad ugly..
'Price' is what we pay to 'reduce','bear' or 'feel good about the cost.. — Abha Maryada Banerjee

I have met so-called leaders who showed fear in a moment when strength was required, and they give leadership a bad name. — Jason Taylor

I think we've bounced back and really been resilient. Even after a bad period, we take over and we seem like we're on a mission. That comes with leadership and experience and a lot of things. A lot of it is mental toughness and resiliency in the situation you're at, just trusting in your teammates. — Mike Fisher

Under a good administration, the Nile gains on the desert. Under a bad one, the desert gains on the Nile. — Napoleon Bonaparte

Educators are in the news, too. Usually that's bad. I had a favorite college professor. He used to tell us, 'If you make CNN as a teacher, you're probably going to jail. — Tucker Elliot

I hope that the Palestinians don't make the mistake of unleashing a new intifada. They've tried it twice before, and the consequences were bad for both sides. But I don't think the forces are there (that could carry out) an uprising against the leadership. The people that could initiate it are in Israeli prisons. And what could they hope to achieve? In the end, they're too weak to end the Israeli occupation. — Tom Segev

To ensure that we are leading with our feet firmly planted on the soil of what is, we must live by the seven commandments of current reality:
Thou shalt not pretend.
Though shalt not turn a blind eye.
Thou shalt not exaggerate.
Thou shalt not shoot the bearer of bad news.
Thou shalt not hide behind the numbers.
Thou shalt not ignore constructive criticism.
Thou shalt not isolate thyself.
Attempting to lead while turning a blind eye to reality is like treading water: It can only go on for so long, eventually you will sink. As a next generation leader, be willing to face the truth regardless of how painful it might be. And if you don't like what you see, change it. — Andy Stanley

It is hard to feel bad about yourself when you are doing something good for someone else. There are a lot of ways to lift your self-esteem, but making a positive difference in another's life has got to be my best leadership guidance. Serving others and working to add value to them will lift your spirits in a way that nothing else will. Trust me on this one. — John C. Maxwell

I don't agree with all-male leaderships. Men cannot be left to run things on their own. I think it's a thoroughly bad thing to have a men-only leadership. — Harriet Harman

An individual school can handle a resident idiot from time to time, but an entire school system is only as good as its weakest leader. — Tucker Elliot

There are good leaders who actively guide and bad leaders who actively misguide. Hence, leadership is about persuasion, presentation and people skills. — Shiv Khera

Scarcely a general can be found amongst them who admits that he lost a battle by his own bad leadership. — Heinz Linge

Libertarians believe that any government interference is bad. Anyone with a brain knows that climate change needs governmental leadership, and they can smell this is bad news for their philosophy. Their ideology is so strongly held that, remarkably, it's overcoming the facts. — Jeremy Grantham

It was only with the crisis that debt soared.
Yet many Europeans in key positions - especially politicians and officials in Germany, but also the leadership of the European Central Bank and opinion leaders throughout the world of finance and banking - are deeply committed to the Big Delusion, and no amount of contrary evidence will shake them. As a result, the problem of dealing with the crisis is often couched in moral terms: nations are in trouble because they have sinned, and they must redeem themselves through suffering.
And that's a very bad way to approach the actual problems Europe faces. — Paul Krugman

Sexism in politics is nothing new when you're standing for election. But don't stand for election and it's almost as bad. Shockingly, David Cameron thought it acceptable to claim this week that my decision not to run for the Labour leadership was because my husband, Ed Balls, stopped [me] from standing. — Yvette Cooper

Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally . Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. — Barack Obama

I realize that what happened in Bosnia could happen anywhere in the world, particularly in places that are diverse and have a history of conflict. It only takes bad leadership for a country to go up in flames, for people of different ethnicity, color, or religion to kill each other as if they had nothing in common whatsoever. Having a democratic constitution, laws that secure human rights, police that maintain order, a judicial system, and freedom of speech don't ultimately guarantee long lasting peace. If greedy or bloodthirsty leaders come to power, it can all go down. It happened to us. It can happen to you. — Savo Heleta

Wherever something is wrong, something is too big. If the stars in the sky or the atoms of uranium disintegrate in spontaneous explosion, it is not because their substance has lost its balance. It is because matter has attempted to expand beyond the impassable barriers set to every accumulation. Their mass has become too big. If the human body becomes diseased, it is, as in cancer, because a cell, or a group of cells, has begun to outgrow its allotted narrow limits. And if the body of a people becomes diseased with the fever of aggression, brutzdity, collectivism, or massive idiocy, it is not because it has fallen victim to bad leadership or mental derangement. It is because huma beings, so charming as individuals or in small aggregations, have been welded into overconcentrated social units such as mobs, unions, cartels, or great powers. — Leopold Kohr

Under a bad leadership Serbs are capable of committing the most terrible atrocities; under good leaders we can do great deeds. It's like a field - if it's not cared for, the weeds will take over. But if you tend it, water and feed the seeds, you will read a bountiful harvest. Serbs are lazy, we lack discipline and have no capacity for self-criticism." With Their Backs to the World — Asne Seierstad

Authority to dream is not given, it is taken. Take it. Do not let the judgment of others be the final word. Without a doubt, if there is a one-word, one-step cure for bad peg moments, that word is perseverance. Let that be your final word. — J. Loren Norris

People do look to others for some leadership, and it's not bad for them to supply it when they feel that way. — Arthur Miller

The problem with your company is not the economy, it is not the lack of opportunity, it is not your team. The problem is you. That is the bad news. The good news is, if you're the problem, you're also the solution. You're the one person you can change the easiest. You can decide to grow. Grow your abilities, your character, your education, and your capacity. You can decide who you want to be and get about the business of becoming that person. — Dave Ramsey

My sports were team sports: ice hockey and baseball. The whole team dynamic is similar in business. Leadership is earned - the captain earns that role; it's not because he's the coach's son. These are all things we know, but in today's world, it's not a bad idea to remind ourselves. — James McNerney

I don't think one party has a bad vision over the other party. I have no doubts that every Indian and every Indian political leadership would like to see this country get to a much better level. We would all like to see inclusive growth. — Baba Kalyani