Bootstrap Leadership Blog

Do you have a favorite leadership quote?  As a leader, you’ve probably been exposed to a variety of inspirational sayings and quotes down through the years.  Perhaps one or more of these have caught your attention and become a personal favorite.  While you’re not required to have a leadership quote framed and hanging in your office, it is kind of cool to find one that sums up your leadership philosophy or fits your leadership style.  Here are a few of my favorites:

“To command is to serve.  Nothing more, nothing less.”    - Andre Malraux

“Management is doing things right.  Leadership is doing the right things.”   - Peter Drucker

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do what you want done because he wants to do it.”    - Dwight Eisenhower

“The first responsibility of the leader is to define reality.  The last is to say thank you.  In between, the leader is a servant.”    - Max DePree

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst 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 this ourselves.’”    - Lao-Tzu

“A leader leads by example, whether he wants to or not.”    - Anonymous

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success.  Leadership determines whether the ladder is leading against the right wall.”   - Stephen Covey

“Before you become a leader, success is all about developing yourself.  When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”                         - Jack Welch

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are a leader.”    - John Quincy Adams

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”    - John Kennedy

What I love about these quotes is they all have something to do with the concept of servant leadership or lifelong learning.  Quotes like these inspire us, and remind us that leadership is about those we lead, not about us.  If you have a favorite leadership quote, I’d love to read it.  Post it in the comments section, and I’ll print another list like this in a few weeks.  In the meantime – keep leading with courage and passion.