Inspiring Leader Quotes & Sayings

If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader. — Lee Kuan Yew

Leadership (according to John Sculley) revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation. A leader must be able to leverage more than his own capabilities. He must be capable of inspiring other people to do things without actually sitting on top of them with a checklist. — Warren G. Bennis

One of the best ways to influence people is to make them feel important. — Roy T. Bennett

To me, a leader is a visionary that energizes others. This definition of leadership has two key dimensions: a) creating the vision of the future, and b) inspiring others to make the vision a reality. — Vince Lombardi

A leader becomes great by inspiring others to do great things. — Debasish Mridha

Truly effective and inspiring leaders aren't actually driven to lead people; they are driven to serve them. — Simon Sinek

Unfortunately, as inspiring as people find Barack Obama, change can be interpreted in so many different ways. I think he might do a great deal of good things for social programs here in America and as well, as much as people want to characterize anybody who's a leader and try and sell that, and market it and characterize them in a good way or a bad way, I think it's very telling about the system that we have when we come to the realization that the war is not going to end. — Immortal Technique

Truly remarkable leadership is not just about motivating others to follow, it's about inspiring them to become leaders themselves and setting the stage for even greater opportunities for future generations. — Condoleezza Rice

Ask others the same questions you ask of yourself: "Am I a good leader? Am I trustworthy? Am I inspiring? — Rob Roy

In a group presentation, the person with the best "command presence" is usually the leader. He or she understands the material best, shows it, and has the confidence to take charge. They are typically dressed a little better than everyone else. Their shoes are polished and their clothes pressed. They make stronger eye contact and have a firm handshake. They speak concisely and precisely. They don't get flustered. They remain calm. They use "open" gestures, palms up or open and hands apart. Their voices project because they're speaking from their diaphragms. They walk, talk, and look like inspiring leaders. — Carmine Gallo

The most popular TED speakers give presentations that stand out in a sea of ideas. As Daniel Pink notes in To Sell Is Human, "Like it or not, we're all in sales now."4 If you've been invited to give a TED talk, this book is your bible. If you haven't been invited to give a TED talk and have no intention of doing so, this book is still among the most valuable books you'll ever read because it will teach you how to sell yourself and your ideas more persuasively than you've ever imagined. It will teach you how to incorporate the elements that all inspiring presentations share, and it will show you how to reimagine the way you see yourself as a leader and a communicator. Remember, if you can't inspire anyone else with your ideas, it won't matter how great those ideas are. Ideas are only as good as the actions that follow the communication of those ideas. — Carmine Gallo

A humble learner of today becomes a strong leader of tomorrow. — Abhijit Naskar

Gideon," he said, "think for a minute about the qualities that a leader - even a co-leader - is required to have. He's a team player. He's good at inspiring others. He's able to hide his true feelings, put up a false front when necessary. He projects confidence at all times - even if he doesn't feel confident. He can't be a freelancer. And he's certainly not a loner. Now, tell me: do any of these qualities describe you? — Douglas Preston

Leaders think it's possible. They inspire followers to believe in the same good news and it becomes a blessing to them. Leadership is all about inspiring people to believe in what becomes profitable to them! — Israelmore Ayivor

Leaders are limited by their vision rather than by their abilities. — Roy T. Bennett

Companies must have a noble cause, and it's the leaders job to transform that noble cause into such an inspiring vision, that it will attract the most talented people in the world to want to join it. — Steve Jobs

I do not yet know of a man who became a leader as a result of having undergone a leadership course. — Lee Kuan Yew

And it falls to a true leader to see to it that his or her people have an inspiring vision to pursue. — Bill Byrd

Before a leader can be accepted, let alone succeed, autonomous professionals must agree to be influenced by that person. — David Maister

Any great and inspiring leader or organization that ever existed set out to do something completely unrealistic. — Simon Sinek

Inspiring others to do better work is the accomplishment of a leader. — John C. Maxwell

Everyday we see your heart and character, inspiring all of us to give more of ourselves.'You are the leader to take us from where we are to where we need to be. — Beyonce Knowles

Your task as a leader is to help others to succeed, not to strive only for your own success. If I don't trust your motives, nothing else will matter -because my primary concern is your integrity. — David Maister

We are certain that for every one of these rock stars we meet in our daily work, there are dozens or even hundreds more who are doing their best to unseat us from our perch. Maybe all of them will fail, but probably not. Probably, somewhere in a garage, dorm room, lab, or conference room, a brave business leader has gathered a small, dedicated team of smart creatives. Maybe she has a copy of our book, and is using our ideas to help her create a company that will eventually render Google irrelevant. Preposterous, right? Except that, given that no business wins forever, it is inevitable. Some would find this chilling. We find it inspiring. — Eric Schmidt

We need a leader able to project his or her personality and present our policies in today's media environment. All this is true - but we also need a leader capable of building a team, inspiring loyalty from colleagues, and one genuinely open to ideas. — Bob Ainsworth

The leader's success in this skill is not just in the development of a vision - the corporate world is littered with concept videos, detailed mockups, and other scenarios of possible futures. Their success is instead shown in how the vision catalyzes action, inspiring the people within a company to charge forward because they want to live in a world where that vision is made a reality. — Peter Merholz

All leaders are influenced by those they admire. Reading about them and studying their traits inevitably allows an inspiring leader to develop his own leadership traits. — Rudy Giuliani

A few primary keys to becoming a leader in business include having a clear intent or purpose, a truly inspiring vision, a grand message to share, a genuine social calling and a targeted niche to serve. — John Frederick Demartini

When a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without proximate living examples of what she may aspire to become
whether lawyer, scientist, artist, or leader in any realm
her goal remains abstract. Such models as appear in books or on the news, however inspiring or revered, are ultimately too remote to be real, let alone influential. But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, 'Yes, someone like me can do this. — Sonia Sotomayor

When you say 'I want to be an inspiring leader,' the operative phrase is 'I want.' This is inherently me-centered and self serving whether or not you recognise it. What you are really saying is 'I want to get people to do what I would like them to.' Perhaps they don't want to do that. So you have to somehow get them there. — Srikumar Rao

I don't believe that being an inspiring leader is a goal that you can aspire to. It is a by-product. — Srikumar Rao

And in some ways, to me, that's one of the inspiring and powerful things about the Great Migration itself. There was no leader, there was no one person who set the date who said, 'On this date, people will leave the South.' They left on their own accord for as many reasons as there are people who left. They made a choice that they were not going to live under the system into which they were born anymore and in some ways, it was the first step that the nation's servant class ever took without asking. — Isabel Wilkerson

When was the last time you heard an insightful, inspiring piece of oratory from an Australian political leader, an appeal to what is pure and true within humanity: a statement of belief backed by ideas for change betterment, a call to those immutable values wherein lie the potential greatness of people individually and collectively? Such exhortation, such leadership is lamentably scarce. — Michael Short

If we say leaders are incompetent, we are going to fuel extremist, populist, xenophobic and ultra-nationalist parties. — Jose Manuel Barroso

It is a great privilege to meet inspiring leaders from different parts of the church - Catholic, Baptist, Salvation Army, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, and so many more - and discover that what unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us. — Nicky Gumbel

So I grew up feeling that I wasn't good enough, and that no-one would love me unless I was perfect. But no-one's perfect, we're not meant to be perfect. We're meant to be complete. But it's hard to be complete if you're trying to be perfect, so you kind of become disembodied. And I spent a lot of my life that way.""And if you don't own your strength ... Women like me tend to always look over their shoulder to see who ... "Who's the leader? Who's the smart one?" Never thinking it might be ME. Took a long time for me to get over that. — Jane Fonda

Being a visionary leader is not about giving speeches and inspiring the troops. How I spend my day is pretty much the same as how any executive spends his day. Being a visionary leader is about solving day-to-day problems with my vision in mind. — Bill O'Brien

By learning more, by doing more, by becoming more, and by creating a common vision, a leader is a person who can inspire others to change for the better. — Debasish Mridha

Knowing how to do a job is the accomplishment of labor - showing others is the accomplishment of the teacher - making sure the work is done by others is the accomplishment of the manager - inspiring others to do better work is the accomplishment of the leader. — John C. Maxwell

Warren Berger's book is a cure for a disease in large enterprises. A More Beautiful Question provides a framework to help leaders ask the most important questions - which is one of the most fundamental characteristics of a great leader - while sharing inspiring stories to show the incredible power of this concept. — Jim Stengel

Leaders earn a heck of a lot more money than followers. — T. Harv Eker