Leadership Quotes
Leadership quotes and links to leadership quotes.
"Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people"--that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." - Peter Drucker
Leadership Quotes: The Best
- Leadership Quotes, classic: "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight Eisenhower.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), "likeable Ike", was the 34th president of the United States (1953–61). He was supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during World War II. He came from a poor background, but graduated from West Point. Eisenhower's advancement was down to his people skills. Men from all ranks liked and trusted him for his humility, friendliness, and optimism.
Eisenhower's warmth, and enjoyment of simple pastimes like golf, bridge, and
watching westerns, endeared him to the public. This, combined with his promise to
seek an ending to the Korean War helped him win his first term. He backed his
promise by negotiating a truce. Eisenhower's "modern Republicanism," sought
to reduce taxes, but many of his policies appeared Democratic. Ike increased the
minimum wage, broadened the Social Security System and created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
He clashed more with the right wing of the Republican Party than the Democrats,
and had a hearty dislike for senator McCarthy.
Eisenhower's second term election was a landslide victory, gaining 57% of the vote and
winning 457 to 73.
In 1957 Eisenhower dispatched troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to stop Governor Faubus
obstructing a court order to integrate a high school.
His Civil Rights Act of 1957 was a landmark victory for the Civil Rights
movement.
In response to Sputnik, Ike's administration created NASA in July 1958. The
insipid nature of the leaders of the USSR around this time meant Ike could not
do much to end the cold war—but his political ability helped create the
balance of power that kept the world from descending into nuclear mayhem.
"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him....But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did it ourselves'." - Lao Tzu
Leadership Quotes: The Rest
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - Albert Einstein.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in Germany, but fled Nazi persecution and died in America. His theories of relativity revolutionised physics, and he became a leader within the physics community. He was offered political leadership positions in Israel, but chose to remain in the academia. From there, he used his qualities of intellectual leadership to influence world events.
"Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person." - Mother Teresa.
"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion." - Theodore Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame.
