Leadership Quotes

There are a lot of leadership quotes in the internet and in literature.  I would like to share some of my personal favorite quotes.

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

"The quality of the leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." - Ray Kroc

"Not all readers are leaders, but all effective leaders are readers." - Harry S. Truman (italics is mine)

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

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.  When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." - Jack Welch

"We must become the change we wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." - Proverbs 29:18

"People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision." - John Maxwell

"Live out your imagination, not your history." - Stephen R. Covey

"The attitude of the leader influences the attitude of the team." - Arnel H. Sugay

Leading is influencing

A young associate asked me one evening,"Why do you keep sending me leadership quotes via SMS when I am not a leader?"  This young man is neither a supervisor nor a manager.
The word leader is a misnomer.  You do not need a title to lead people.  As John Maxwell puts it, "Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less."
If you influence a parent, you influence a family; if you influence a child, you influence a life; if you influence an employee, you influence a company; if you influence a leader, your influence their followers.
In other words, anyone who influences is a leader.  Perhaps a good question to ask would be "as an influencer am I a good leader?