John C. Maxwell Quotes

Leadership is not taken, it is given. People give leadership to those that they trust. They allow people that they trust to have influence over their lives.

The more credible you are, the more confidence people place in you, thereby allowing you the privilege of influencing their lives.

Character matters; leadership descends from character.

As a captain, I think it's important that the players really know who you are and what you stand for, what your beliefs are, and to be consistent in those if things are going good or things are going bad.

Leadership can't be fabricated. If it is fabricated and rehearsed, you can't fool the guys in the locker room. So when you talk about leadership, it comes with performance. Leadership comes with consistency.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.

Undertaker was always a leader in the dressing room, always a man's man. No one ever doubted what he said because his word was good. He was a guy that set the dressing room standard. If you had an issue or personal problem, you could go to Undertaker and he would help you.

Leadership is learned, earned, and discerned. You develop it. It's based on trust and credibility. Others see it in you. You can't demand it.

If you say something and back it up with your actions, you will provide the 'proof' for people who are listening to you, and they will much more willingly follow your lead.

If you are going to be a leader, you must have a record where people saw you are standing up against injustice at a risk. Then that builds up your stock of credibility so that, when you speak on another occasion about a different thing, people will pay attention.

The people know that they need in their representative much more than talent, namely, the power to make his talent trusted.

People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.

No matter your title, people will not follow you if they don’t trust you.

Trust is the essence of Leadership.

Character makes trust possible, and trust is the foundation of leadership.

It was important to me to believe, because if I don't believe, how can I expect them to believe?

I get a lot of advice from Mark Harmon, and I take it all to heart because I respect the heck out of him.

Empty threats are often worse than saying nothing at all. It's like leading from behind. Eventually, no one thinks you're leading at all. And after a while, no one is even listening.

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself.

You get a reputation for stability if you are stable for years.

To be honest, the fact that people trust you gives you a lot of power over people. Having another person's trust is more powerful than all other management techniques put together.

People look for their leadership to lead.

Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons.

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.