Effective Leaders Quotes

Effective leaders know that resources are never the problem; it's always a matter or resourcefulness.

We need to have leaders that aren't afraid to go against the grain to call out failures in leadership.

The best leaders realize their success depends on their people.

Effective leaders help others to understand the necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome.

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.

The best leaders don't set timid and selfish goals but instead set bold targets that may be harder to achieve.

Leaders don’t boss. Not if they’re any good. They persuade. America needs a whole lot more persuading and a lot less bossing.

I think effective leaders typically are able to see the future to a certain degree and then try to take actions to shape it in some way.

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.

I believe that women make some of the best leaders.

For leaders to be effective, they need to connect with people.

Quality effective leaders have the confidence to trust others to try, succeed, and sometimes to fail.

Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizen should be: partisans but never zealots, respectors of the facts which attend each situation but never benders of those facts, uncomfortable in positions of leadership but rarely unable to turn down a responsibility once it has been offered . . . or thrust upon them. They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power.

Only a few good leaders have paused to reflect seriously on being leaders.

I often say that leadership is deeply personal and inherently collective. That's a paradox that effective leaders have to embrace.

I would assert that highly effective leaders are made more than they're born. Every leader I know who's been highly effective has worked hard at it, and they've been students of it. The more you're a student of leadership, the more you figure out what works for you and the more effective you're going to be.

Franklin Roosevelt had a pretty clear line. Ronald Reagan had a pretty clear line, people who rescue parties.

Kids raised to be pampered and spoiled don't really end up being good leaders. Leaders need to be independent minded and confident.

First and foremost, effective leaders must continuously strive to make themselves smarter and better at making judgments.

I think Americans expect optimism in their leadership. The most popular and effective leaders, whether it was Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan or Jack Kennedy, brought to it a sense of optimism and possibility.

I've worked for some amazing leaders, and I've worked for the opposite, and that gave me the perspective of what I knew I never wanted to be, and the perspective of what had lasting, sustainable impact.

The best leaders... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.

Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get.

I believe we need leaders who actually want to lead everyone.

Leaders listen. Staggeringly well.