Quotes & Sayings About Difficult Leadership

There is the fact that - people have had a lot of confidence that the Chinese leadership could fix what is wrong with their economy so it wouldn't have ripple effects around the world. I think that confidence is being shaken by how difficult it is for them to manage their stock market and their currency. — David Wessel

When you move forward in life or move on with life..
Moving on from people is the most difficult and painful..
But probably the most 'necessary'..
One may have to leave behind many who's, what's, when's, where's and why's..
Imperative to maintaining forward momentum in life.. — Abha Maryada Banerjee

If you haven't found yourself yet, it's difficult to help someone to discover himself. False leaders make more false leaders! — Israelmore Ayivor

A person's integrity develops early in life. Once formed, it is difficult to alter, change, or improve. — Scott K. Edinger

Good political leadership for me involves getting the big decisions right - however difficult, however controversial, however potentially divisive - and then being able to take people with you. — Charles Kennedy

The young man of leadership caliber will work while others waste time, study while others snooze, pray while others daydream. Slothful habits are overcome, whether in thought, deed, or dress. The emerging leader eats right, stands tall, and prepares himself to wage spiritual warfare. He will without reluctance undertake the unpleasant task that others avoid or the hidden duty that others evade because it wins no public applause. As the Spirit fills his life, he learns not to shrink from difficult situations or retreat from hard-edged people. He will kindly and courageously administer rebuke when that is called for, or he will exercise the necessary discipline when the interests of the Lord's work demand it. He will not procrastinate, but will prefer to dispatch with the hardest tasks first. — J. Oswald Sanders

It is difficult to practice obedience; but it is even more difficult to practice leadership. — Gregory Of Nazianzus

Unfaithfulness of team members is a difficult test that may bring disappointment to a leader. — Sunday Adelaja

The task of the strategist and leadership team is to reduce uncertainty in the areas that they can directly influence in order to pursue attractively difficult objectives. — Max McKeown

It is easy to fool yourself. It is possible to fool the people you work for. It is more difficult to fool the people you work with. But it is almost impossible to fool the people who work under you. — Harry Bates Thayer

He passed off the loss of a spice crawler with a gesture. The threat to men's lives had him in a rage. A leader such as that would command fanatic loyalty. He would be difficult to defeat. — Frank Herbert

We have feudal governments in a commercial age. It would be but an easy extension of our commercial system, to pay a private emperor a fee for services, as we pay an architect, an engineer, or a lawyer. If any man has talent for righting wrong, for administering difficult affairs, for counselling poor farmers how to turn their estates to good husbandry, for combining a hundred private enterprises to a general benefit, let him in the county- town, or in Court-street, put up his sign-board, Mr. Smith, Governor, Mr. Johnson, Working king. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It's a state of mind-you could call it character in action. — Vince Lombardi

Ministry leadership in the twenty-first century is difficult enough when the leader maintains appropriate boundaries that flow out of personal understanding of the biblical teaching about leaders. It can be impossible if one allows others in the church, or society in general, to determine the priorities of time and commitment. — Mark A. Searby

Americans will not and should not respond to a political creed that cherishes the past solely because it offers an excuse for shutting out the hard facts and difficult tasks of the present. — Nelson Rockefeller

Europe is difficult to coordinate, and our main deficit may not even lie in this area of finance and economics, but in foreign and security policy. We have a leadership problem because we are still 27 different members who have still not decided on how to work with each other based on what we used to call a European constitution. — Peer Steinbruck

Make the difficult choices and adopt the discipline regime required of a person who has set their mind to succeed, kiss mediocrity goodbye and translate an ordinary life to the extraordinary. It takes personal commitment of time and resources, and a sacrifice of non-essential pleasures to move towards success. — Archibald Marwizi

In many situations involving service recovery - the problem itself became the catalyst for the creation of even greater trust as the companies took the issues head-on and worked through the difficult problem in a way that restored confidence. — Stephen Covey

Difficult missions will bring difficult challenges which may sometimes produce temporary setbacks. The test of a human being is in accepting the failure and going on trying until he or she succeeds. Managing failure is the essence of leadership. — A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

It is said that it is far more difficult to hold and maintain leadership (liberty) than it is to attain it. Success is a ruthless competitor for it flatters and nourishes our weaknesses and lulls us into complacency. We bask in the sunshine of accomplishment and lose the spirit of humility which helps us visualize all the factors which have contributed to our success. We are apt to forget that we are only one of a team, that in unity there is strength and that we are strong only as long as each unit in our organization functions with precision. — Samuel J. Tilden

The first key to leadership was self-control, particularly the mastery of pride, which was something more difficult, he explained, to subdue than a wild lion and anger, which was more difficult to defeat than the greatest wrestler. He warned them that if you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead. — Jack Weatherford

Events and developments that we have observed in 2014, prove that this year will be very difficult for the world economy, but thoughtful economic policy, diversification and unity between the country's leadership and people guarantee that this year will be successful for us. — Ilham Aliyev

To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. — Friedrich Nietzsche

It is difficult to spread the contagion of excitement without having a sense of purpose and direction. — Daniel Goleman

What exactly was Jesus' take on violent capitalism? I also have some big ideas for changing the way we think about literary morals as they pertain to legislation. Rather than suffer another attempt by the religious right to base our legalese upon the Bible, I would vote that we found it squarely upon the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. The citizens of Middle Earth had much more tolerant policies in their governing bodies. For example, Elrond was chosen to lead the elves at Rivendell not only despite his androgynous nature but most likely because of the magical leadership inherent in a well-appointed bisexual elf wizard. That's the person you want picking shit out for your community. That's the guy you want in charge. David Bowie or a Mormon? Not a difficult equation. — Nick Offerman

If you cannot see it in your mind, then it becomes difficult to get. If you can personally visualize it, it becomes easier and more realistic to achieve. — Archibald Marwizi

I believe one of the requirements of good leadership is the ability to listen - really listen - to those in your organization. An effective leader is very good at listening, and it's difficult to listen when you are talking. — John Wooden

I believe that positive energy and optimism help us to take up any challenge in life and to succeed in even the most difficult tasks. I also believe that positive energy is contagious: we can transmit it to others. — Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom-as something they thought was almost a necessity. It's as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need. — Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is a difficult practice personally because it almost always requires you to make a challenging adaptation yourself. What makes adaptation complicated is that it involves deciding what is so essential that it must be preserved going forward and what of all that you value can be left behind. Those are hard choices because they involve both protecting what is most important to you and bidding adieu to something you previously held dear: a relationship, a value, an idea, an image of yourself. — Ronald A. Heifetz

As the leadership team, we're taking bold and decisive action to evolve our organization and culture. This includes difficult steps, but they are necessary to position Microsoft for future growth and industry leadership. — Amy Hood

Great coaches do not tell people what to think. They point people in the right direction to find the answers. This self-restraint is one of the most difficult challenges of leadership. — Thomas G. Bandy

Sometimes it is difficult to different between leaders and misleaders. However, with the measurement of true service to mankind, the evidence is very clear! — Israelmore Ayivor

Signs of communist domination of the andartes were not difficult to find, but at the same time there was no indication that the KKE desired to seize power by force. On the contrary, what evidence there is suggests that the KKE - in so far as its divided leadership was capable of any decisions at all in the absence of a clear lead from Moscow - had decided not to seize power at a time when it could easily have done so. — Mark Mazower

If you do not look at things on a large scale, it will be difficult to master strategy. — Miyamoto Musashi

A man is commanding - a woman is demanding. A man is forceful - a woman is pushy. A man is uncompromising - a woman is a ball-breaker. A man is a perfectionist - a woman's a pain in the ass. He's assertive - she's aggressive. He strategizes - she manipulates. He shows leadership - she's controlling. He's committed - she's obsessed. He's persevering - she's relentless. He sticks to his guns - she's stubborn. If a man wants to get it right, he's looked up to and respected. If a woman wants to get it right, she's difficult and impossible. — Barbra Streisand

Knowing, glorifying and loving God are difficult to quantify, so we seldom include them in the evaluation process. We are tempted to evaluate goals that are easy to measure but that are much less significant. The final evaluation of leadership and of organizations is to ask, Did our efforts, programs, finances, structures and leadership style bring glory to God? Did these help people to know and love God? Too often we merely ask, Did the organization grow under my leadership? Did the budget increase? Did we plant more churches? Instead we must ask, Did the budget make God glad? Do people in the churches we planted truly love God more deeply? The fact that we will never be able to precisely quantify and evaluate the ultimate purpose must not dissuade us from being passionate about God's glory. The Lord will likely give us glimpses or indications of leadership effectiveness, but most of the critical outcomes will only be known in eternity. — James E. Plueddemann

Great leadership can be a difficult thing to pin down and understand. You know a great leader when you're working for one, but even they can have a hard time articulating what it is that makes their leadership so effective. — Travis Bradberry

It's very difficult to evaluate a leader in a very short-term perspective because to be a leader you must be able to have a long-term perspective. You must be able to carry changes which take many years. And this is why you can really only see whether it has been a good leadership after some years have passed. — Gro Harlem Brundtland

Voters - here's the real challenge: we don't need empty promises made by politicians whose only goal in life is to get elected or re-elected. We need leaders with attributes that qualify them to lead us through the difficult challenges we're facing. — Lee Ellis

To be future strong, you will face difficult hardships. Usually, there is no absolutely right or absolutely wrong choice. The key is to be intentional: Choosing the best hardships for your best future. — Bill Jensen

Superior execution is vital to sustaining the success initiated by an innovative service concept. An innovator's service quality is usually more difficult to imitate than its service concept. This is because quality service comes from inspired leadership throughout an organization, a customer-minded corporate culture, excellent service-system design, the effective use of information and technology, and other factors that develop slowly in a company, if at all. — Leonard L. Berry

You first compete with yourself before competing against others; if you cannot beat your last best result, do not be surprised if it seems difficult to compete against external competitors. — Archibald Marwizi

Over time, is it easier or harder to sustain your influence within your organization? With charisma alone, influence becomes increasingly more difficult to sustain. With character, as time passes, influence builds and requires less work to sustain. — John C. Maxwell

Fearful leaders love to stay in the morass of insignificant details. Because the details are usually unimportant, it is difficult to make a mistake of consequence. Of course, it's impossible to do anything of consequence when your focus is on those things that really don't make a difference. — Thom S. Rainer

The most interesting aspect of leadership is that it cannot be predicted. All great leaders had been quite ordinary in their early years. It was only when they became leaders that people started recognising them as leaders.
It is difficult to identify specific qualities that make a leader. However, when leaders emerge, people are inclined to point out their leadership qualities. Yet, when other people imbibe the same qualities and try to imitate the actions of their leaders, they may fail. — Awdhesh Singh

It's a difficult thing to offer leadership to a people who have lost control over their future. But offer it I must. And when I look around me and see the dignity displayed by our last generation, see their elegance and their grace, it fills me with pride even as it tears at my heart. — Stephen Lloyd Jones

It is the misfortune of contemporary leaders, across the whole spectrum of Australian life, that the community's demand for strong leadership is growing in direct proportion to our lack of confidence in ourselves. The end of this century is an unusually difficult time to be a leader in Australia. — Hugh Mackay

Recognizing the good, not just in one's own personal circumstances, but in the world, makes anything possible. When I am asked about the important characteristics of leadership, being of good, positive mind is at the top of my list. If a leader can focus on the meritorious characteristics of other people and try to play to their strengths as well as find value in even the most difficult situation, she can inspire hope and faith in others and motivate them to move forward. — Wilma Mankiller

When faced with a challenging or difficult situation, the best leaders most often respond with courage; less mature leaders, or nonleaders often choose another path-a path with less risk, less conflict, and less personal discomfort. — Mark Miller

The longer we go without strong leadership from the Administration and until we see significant progress in the day-to-day lives of the Iraqi people, the more difficult it will become to sustain the support of the American people and Congress for the current course. — Dennis Cardoza

The object of leadership may be stated as having a system whereby a leader recognizes what is good for the good of the government, for the good of the nation, for the good of humanity, and recognizes the qualities he has and what he can do within his own limitations. He cannot do, and should not attempt to do, the impossible, but he should not fail to attempt something that might be extremely difficult and may be possible. — Arleigh Burke

Unfortunately for many Aboriginal people, of course, they've been in the situation of being herded on government reserves. Their own responsibility's been assumed by Protectors of Aborigines and by government officials and if you become part of that system, it's always difficult to break out of it. — Lowitja O'Donoghue

The position does not make you a leader. The title, the promotion, the fancy corner office do not make you a leader. No, it is relationships with people that are the foundation, the very heart of leadership. Have you ever worked for someone you didn't like? It's difficult, isn't it? On the other hand, the leader you will follow anywhere and everywhere is one you know cares about you, and values you. This person has your best interests at heart. It is the leader who comes alongside to help you improve and grow. — John C. Maxwell

The most important ingredient of leadership is character. Most of the proficiencies can be learned, but what's inside you is something that's difficult to change. — Jesse Robredo

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things ... Whenever his enemies have occasion to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable. — Niccolo Machiavelli

APM focuses on team management, from building self-organizing teams to developing a servant leadership style. It is both more difficult, and ultimately more rewarding than managing tasks. — Jim Highsmith

Leaders devoid of crucible experiences are likely to be overly confident about their ideas, and surprisingly more susceptible to fears; this is also true of children who are overly sheltered from facing challenges and experiences that help build their character. Courageously facing our fears in the difficult times gives us both humility and real confidence. — Lee Ellis

Although Genghis Khan recognized the superior leadership abilities of his daughters and left them strategically important parts of his empire, today we cannot even be certain how many daughters he had. In their lifetime they could not be ignored, but when they left the scene, history closed the door behind them and let the dust of centuries cover their tracks. Those Mongol queens were too unusual, too difficult to understand or explain. It seemed more convenient just to erase them. Around — Jack Weatherford

All his life, he had found his way out of difficult situations by determining what people wanted and then convincing them that he was the best one to provide it. Then he'd go ahead and provide it, even if providing it meant walking the narrowest of paths. — Jonathan Darman

As far as Paris goes, we don't know for sure yet how these guys communicate among themselves and how they communicated back to the ISIS leadership in Iraq and Syria, but I'm fairly confident we're going to learn they used these encrypted communication applications that have commercial encryption and are extremely difficult for companies to break - and which the companies have made the decision not to produce a key for. — Michael Morell