Quotes & Sayings About Change Leadership

Freedom is willpower to act for a change. — Lailah Gifty Akita

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

We can walk together to change the status quo. — Ken Wyatt

Millennials, instead of a danger, are really a reflection of the society in which they grew up in, and in which all of us now live. — Crystal Kadakia

Leaders don't watch but make things happen-initiate change — Ikechukwu Joseph

The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required results? Do they change with grace? Manage conflict? — Max De Pree

Transformation is an acquired taste - not for the faint of heart. — Bob Anderson

Williams had a very shrewd sense of how much heat the organism could take at any given time; — David Halberstam

Don't just DO something. Stand there! (and get perspective and understanding) — Scott J. Simmerman Ph.D.

Our evolution depends on our memory. If we keep forgetting the mistakes of the past, only to keep repeating them, then we will never change. And if we keep recycling through the exact same kind of leaders - the kind who do not propel us forward, but only hold us back - then perhaps what we really need now is a completely different style of leadership altogether. We need heart-driven leaders, not strictly mind-driven ones. We need compassionate humanitarians, not greedy businessmen. Peacemakers, not war instigators. We need unity, not division. Angels, not devils. — Suzy Kassem

It's time to care; it's time to take responsibility; it's time to lead; it's time for a change; it's time to be true to our greatest self; it's time to stop blaming others. — Steve Maraboli

It was due to his tact, to his judgment, to his sympathetic manipulation of human beings that the atmosphere had always been such a happy one ... If there was a change, therefore, the change must be due to the man at the top. — Agatha Christie

Leadership is about change ... The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imaginations. — Noel Tichy

But such people (Moderate Conservatives) aren't liberal. What they are is corporate. Their habits and opinions owe far more to the standards of courtesy and taste that prevail within the white-collar world than they do to Franklin Roosevelt and the United Mine Workers. We live in a time, after all, when hard-nosed bosses compose awestruck disquisitions on the nature of 'change,' punk rockers dispense leadership secrets, shallow profundities about authenticity sell luxury cars, tech billionaires build rock'n'roll musuems, management theorists ponder the nature of coolness, and a former lyricist fro the Grateful Dead hail the dawn of New Economy capitalism from the heights of Davos. Coversvatives may not understand why, but business culture had melded with counterculture for reasons having a great deal to do with business culture's usual priority - profit. — Thomas Frank

We must be drawn by the idea of where we want to go more than we dislike the idea of all the work it is going to take to get there. — Scott Hammerle

One of the problems in the biotech world is the lack of women in leadership roles, and I'd like to see that change by walking the walk. — Jennifer Doudna

Control your own Destiny or somebody else will — Jack Welch

My hope and prayer for all who read this book is a reformation - that an army of African-American men will make their way back into the church, back into the leadership of the church, back into leading a change in the church to be and do what it is called to be and do, so that we may have power to do good for our people, and people all over the world, in a way that no government or service organization has been or will be able to do, and that no one will be able to take away. — Eric Redmond

China and India will take the global leadership on climate change: they are suffering for it. — Malcolm Turnbull

Learning how to respond to and master the process of change - and even to excel at it - is a critical leadership skill for the twenty-first century. Constant, rapid change will be a fact of life for all of us. — Jennifer James

Your unwillingness to change to my view point is purely on the justifiable basis that you have your own strongly held beliefs about important life issues. — Archibald Marwizi

Oil policy, policy toward the United States, policy toward Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, very unlikely, I think, to see significant change. These policies were the policies that had a wide family consensus. The question I think would be if the king becomes sick, whether you have weak Saudi leadership in the Arab world and the Middle East rather than strong Saudi leadership, but I think the fundamental policies will continue, the ones we're familiar with under King Abdullah. — Elliott Abrams

Creating change-agile businesses will eliminate the need for what we today call change management. — Paul Gibbons

Master Yourself and you master your environment! Such is the nature of wisdom. — D. Nicole Williams

I'd always heard people say and I'm sure you heard it too, "Change takes time." But, my parents taught me the more important lesson, very silently but with even greater clarity, "Change takes time. But, it also takes people." People who are willing to put in their everything. Change doesn't happen by itself. — Sharad Vivek Sagar

Leadership expert Michael Hyatt reflected on Karnazes's life and drew three conclusions about why we should embrace discomfort: 1. Comfort is overrated. It doesn't lead to happiness. It makes us lazy - and forgetful. It often leads to self-absorption, boredom, and discontent. 2. Discomfort can be a catalyst for growth. It makes us yearn for something more. It forces us to change, stretch, and adapt. 3. Discomfort is often a sign we're making progress. You've heard the expression, "no pain, no gain." It's true! When you push yourself to grow, you will experience discomfort.2 — Samuel Chand

When a leader is at their limit the last thing they want to hear is that they need to change even more. Maintaining good rhythms of rest, exercise and fun create more energy for a leader to be willing and open for change. — Gary Rohrmayer

Behaviorism was a busted flush, but neo-behaviorist theories, especially choice architecture, achieve behavioral change without coercion or the downsides of carrots and sticks. — Paul Gibbons

I think in any situation, so much of effective leadership is when it comes from your own personality. And I feel very fortunate to be comfortable in the Colts locker room, where people can be who they are, and they don't have to change it when they show up to work that day. — Andrew Luck

The Word that will change a man must first show the man who he really is. — Christian Michael

We know we must address climate change. We may not have sorted out every detail, but we are willing to take a leadership position and embrace open dialogue ... that will get us all to our common goals of protecting our world for future generations, — Alain J. P. Belda

What business needs now is exactly what women are able to provide, and at the very time when women are surging into the work force. But perhaps even more important than work force numbers is the fact that women
who began this sweeping entry in the mid-seventies
are just now beginning to assume positions of leadership, which give them the scope to create and reinforce the trends toward change. The confluence is fortunate, an alignment that gives women unique opportunities to assist in the continuing transformation of the workplace ... — Sally Helgesen

Belief has the power to change your inner state and your outer world. — John Paul Warren

The need for security and power riding on energies that should be making life better and easier for the masses remains a great error in leadership focus. Why should the discovery of uranium's potential become a curse instead of a blessing? I am sure any type of power (nuclear and leadership included) in the wrong hands has the unfortunate potential to become a curse. A lot more is involved, including greed that causes the wealthy to sponsor violence and chaos. All, in order to profit from conflict, yet disregarding the harm caused to the vulnerable majority. — Archibald Marwizi

Every single achievement you make, every single life you change and every single skill you acquire brings you one step closer to becoming a better leader. Every day you can improve the leader in you to become a better person and a greater leader. — Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

People don't change that much. Instead of trying to put in what God left out, try drawing out what God left in! — Curt Coffman

I cannot change the world, but I do not have to conform. — Marva Collins

Believing in your potential and calling upon your courage to change will fuel your professional growth and help you accomplish goals. — John Manning

In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. — Harry S. Truman

The more you respond to change externally, the more solid you need to be internally. — Todd Stocker

My personal convictions drive me to join those like-minded, in the recruitment of a growing army without guns, no hatred or prejudice, but with a leadership voice of influence and harnessing resources to create the change they desire. The major problems facing the world, particularly our beloved African continent, will not be won by sanctions, cruelty, ethnic cleansing, revenge, guns or bullets. The challenges are not largely externally motivated, so the platform to change them must shift. Shift from selfish to selfless, from external to internal, from behaviours to beliefs. Some of them are externally sponsored but self-inflicted, whilst most of them are due to greed, short-sightedness, abuse and selfishness. — Archibald Marwizi

Every time I set my face to seeking God in a fresh way, God begins to change my heart, my mind, my preaching, and my leadership skills. When any believer commits his or her heart to seeking the Lord, everything is going to change. — Daniel Henderson

In any organization of which I have played a leadership role, our trump card has never been great numbers but the way we worked with neighborhood people in conjunction with professionals in suits and ties. I want the Obama generation to try to understand this concept, and use it as a real yardstick for their ability to make change. My life personifies the straddling of two cultures: the world of Amherst and Yale and the world of Newark, New Jersey. As you will see, it is the power of the streets combined with the power of the suites that is the most effective mix for making things happen. Anybody who comes to you and says "we want change," without addressing the intersection of these two powerful forces in combination, is just whistling status quo. — Junius Williams

If world problems feel too big to tackle, think small. Step by step. Small wins build confidence, lead the way to change. — Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Imagine going to work every day to do only and exactly what you love!! All the work gets done because of the abundant diversity of your team. Different skills, interests and talents are woven together into a whole that is much greater than the sum of the parts! — Denise Moreland

Most of all I discovered that my change of mind was closely connected with a change of heart. As a young man, I was comfortable with teachings that supported my leadership role. The role of women was a great topic for debate because it really didn't affect me and my identity. However, as I have been able to better receive God's calling to leadership as a call to humility rather than supremacy, I have been more able to receive women in leadership as well. It is here where I believe that my mind and heart and the Scriptures are most connected. — Robert Fryling

The best way to encourage out of the box thinking is to draw the box correctly in the first place. — Paul Gibbons

The end point of leadership is not just the position of power we reach, but the continual change and deepening we experience that makes a difference in our lives, our work, our world. Our leadership journeys are only at midpoint when we have achieved a position of power. — Janet Hagberg

Leaders are not the ones with the right position or a proclaimed or given title, the actual leaders are the people who start acting, who step up, who do change, no matter in what way or how small! — Akilnathan Logeswaran

Change leads to growth. Resistance leads to rigidity. Rigidity leads to ... — Gary Rohrmayer

A dollar put into a book and a book mastered might change the whole course of a boy's life. It might easily be the beginning of the development of leadership that would carry the boy far in service to his fellow men. — Henry Ford

Denmark needs change, Denmark needs to move on and Denmark needs my leadership. — Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Change is easy to propose, hard to implement, and especially hard to sustain. — Andy Hargreaves

New beginnings can be painful ends. What your attitude is changes ends into new beginnings. — Maurice Duffy

When the Islamic revolution began in 1979 under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, it aroused considerable admiration in the Arab street. It presented a model of organised popular action that deposed one of the region's most tyrannical regimes. The people of the region discerned in this revolution new hope for freedom and change. — Wadah Khanfar

Leadership is not a voice crying in the wilderness, aloof and apart. It requires an ability to command as well as to inspire, to learn in the process of collaboration and to build a team with a common purpose that can take action and execute the change they envision. — Bob Rae

The change "grief cycle", for some people, may be excitement, enthusiasm, engagement, effort, and excellence. — Paul Gibbons

Whom the society deems worthless, once they discover their special inclination, it will change the very course of their lives as well as the shape of the very society that distastes them. — Abhijit Naskar

So, President Obama wants to change America. I understand that. We don't need to change America. We need to change the White House. We need to change the leadership in the White House. — Mario Diaz-Balart

There is no nation on the planet better able to adapt to this change than our nation. We must able to work collaboratively with others. We must anticipate these threats before they happen. This is the new sort of challenge, the new sort of threat that does, in fact, require new thinking, fresh approaches and new leadership. — Hillary Clinton

The rules of the world are changing. It is time for the rules of teaching and teachers' work to change with them. — Andy Hargreaves

[Fighting Climate Change] is important for every single person on the planet, which is why it has to be the greatest grassroots movement of all time. This is the battle of our lives. We're fighting for our children. — Emma Thompson

The truth is that no internal reviews or congressional hearings will change the Secret Service's broken management culture. It needs better leadership. — Ronald Kessler

When you harness your leadership skill to your broken heart change happens. — Andy Stanley

Simply recognizing the need for change does not define leadership. The leader is the one who has the courage to act on what he sees ... A leader is someone who has the courage to say publicly what everybody else is whispering privately. It is not his insight that sets the leader apart from the crowd. It is his courage to act on what he sees, to speak up when everyone else is silent. — Andy Stanley

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

Leadership must evolve into a "science-based craft", like surgery. — Paul Gibbons

The reasons why institutions fail and societies change are complex, and simplistic explanations should evoke automatic suspicion. Sometimes external causes - droughts, plagues or foreign invasions - can unsettle a nation, or its leadership may prove inadequate because of personal factors. In every case, a society faces problems, and is solutions or lack of response set a course for the future. — Thomas W. Africa

The basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mindset, the framework of the other person. — Warren G. Bennis

I regularly invite educators and leaders to send me their questions, and hundreds of them do so every month. The most common question, however, is one to which my response is probably most disappointing. The question is "How do I get better buy-in from my staff before I implement some critically needed changes?" The answer is "You don't. — Douglas B. Reeves

Adopt and change before any major trends or changes. — Jack Ma

If you care about real change, deep structural change, that involves politics, and all politics is friction. It takes leadership, and the willingness to create that friction, that leads to social change. — Nick Hanauer

I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change ... I'm changing the things I cannot accept. — Angela Davis

One of the most common ways to overcome resistance to change is to educate people about it beforehand. Communication of ideas helps people see the need for and the logic of a change. The education process can involve one-on-one discussions, presentations to groups, or memos and reports. — John P. Kotter

Students are often the last to know about change that is occurring in their own school system. — Andy Hargreaves

Think of managing change as an adventure. It tests your skills and abilities. It brings forth talent that may have been dormant. Change is also a training ground for leadership. When we think of leaders, we remember times of change, innovation, and conflict. Leadership is often about shaping a new way of life. To do that, you must advance change, take risks, and accept responsibility for making change happen. — Charles E. Rice

You don't die when your body stops functioning. You die when your name is uttered for the last time in the world. — Abhijit Naskar

Don't buy into the campaign that people don't like change. We are built for it. — Stacy Feiner

You need to change the questions you ask yourself and of your situations, in order to change the trajectory of your life. These are questions that will help you define and refine your purpose. — Archibald Marwizi

Fixing things requires change and change always creates conflict. But that is why you are a leader. — Andy Stanley

Roosevelt was the one who had the vision to change our policy from isolationism to world leadership. That was a terrific revolution. Our country's never been the same since. — W. Averell Harriman

It was a hallmark of Nelson Mandela's leadership that being open to change made him appear not weaker, but even stronger. — Klaus Schwab

Kindness eases change
Love quiets fear — Octavia E. Butler

Leaders are fascinated by future. You are a leader if and only if, you are restless for change, impatient for progress and deeply dissatisfied with status quo. Because in your head, you can see a better future. The friction between 'what is' and 'what could be' burns you, stirs you up, propels you. This is leadership. — Marcus Buckingham

When you choose to act on your problems, you cease to be a victim of circumstance and become a force of change; that's when you transition to not only being a survivor, but to being a leader or hero too, and an inspiration to those still in the victim's mindset. — Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

[M]y administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change. — George W. Bush

Progress does not occur without change. — John C. Maxwell

Leaders make things better and that requires change. — Andy Stanley

We need leadership books that offer information as well as inspiration. Pop leadership is one of the most destructive forces today. — Paul Gibbons

I am very optimistic about the long run prospects for democracy in China. Chinese society is being dramatically and rapidly transformed. And there's rising evidence that the new generation not only lacks faith in communism anymore, they think it's a joke. They're very cynical about their leadership and they want democratic change. — Larry Diamond

I think I should be allowed to be only fair, or even mediocre, for a while. — Jim Bouton

Alignment, to us, means bringing pieces into the same line - the same direction. The metaphor is that a magnet will make pieces of iron point toward it. Agreement is share intellectual understanding. Tribes are clusters of people, and people are complex and nonrational at times. If a tribe is united only by agreement, as soon as times change, agreement has to be reestablished. If people learn new ideas or see a problem from a new perspective, they no longer agree, so tribes based on agreement often discourage learning, questioning, and independent thought. Tribes based on alignment want to maximize each person's contribution, provided that they stay pointed in the same direction like magnetized iron filings. — Dave Logan

We need to change the leadership model in the world. That's my passion in life: changing hearts and minds about leadership. — Bob Vanourek

An entrepreneurial spirit makes you someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business enterprise, talent or calling to become an agent of change. — Archibald Marwizi

The term "leadership" connotes critical experience rather than routine practice. This is suggested in the following comment by Barnard: The overvaluation of the apparatus of communication and administration is opposed to leadership and the development of leaders. It opposes leadership whose function is to promote appropriate adjustment of ends and means to new environmental conditions, because it opposes change either of status in general or of established procedures and habitual routine. This overvaluation also discourages the development of leaders by retarding the progress of the abler men and by putting an excessive premium on routine qualities.[6] {37} — Philip Selznick

In most important ways, leaders of the future will need the traits and capabilities of leaders throughout history: an eye for change and a steadying hand to provide both vision and reassurance that change can be mastered, a voice that articulates the will of the group and shapes it to constructive ends, and an ability to inspire by force of personality while making others feel empowered to increase and use their own abilities. — Rosabeth Moss Kanter

I want to change the world and I used to think I needed to do some big, significant thing. More recently I see this can be accomplished one relationship at a time. — Oliver Thomas

In life, all things are not constant or equal, the inequalities are so loud; change and uncertainty are the order of the day. It is these changes, inequalities and uncertainties that make it more imperative that you deliberately plan your way to success. — Archibald Marwizi

The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of like is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give. — William Arthur Ward

We have minds that are equipped for certainty, linearity and short-term decisions, that must instead make long-term decisions in a non-linear, probabilistic world. — Paul Gibbons