The New Year provides a natural restart for many people – a time to reflect on the past, ponder the future, and set goals for success. To be successful in the coming year, you need to inspire your team through strong leadership.
But what makes a strong leader? How do you move others to collaborate and move passionately toward a goal? For guidance, we can look to some of the most successful authors, military leaders, political figures, and businesspeople. Here are our favorite leadership quotes to inspire you in 2016.
1. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
2. “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.” – Peter Drucker
3. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu
4. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” – Jack Welch
5. “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs
6. “A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” – General Douglas MacArthur
7. “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” – Colin Powell
8. “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” – Stephen Covey
9. "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – General George S. Patton
10. “Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them.” – John Holt
11. “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
12. “You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, each person on a team is an extension of your leadership; if they feel empowered by you they will magnify your power to lead. Trust is a great force multiplier.” – Tom Ridge
13. “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
14. “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estée Lauder
15. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill
16. “The glue that holds all relationships together—including the relationship between the leader and the led—is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” – Brian Tracy
Here’s to leading with success in 2016.
Contact us at 215.441.4600 or Email if you have questions or would like to discuss how this topic may impact your business.
You may also like: