Shaping the Future: 25 Leadership Quotes for Personal Inspiration

Are you one with desires for shaping the future? I certainly am. I was raised to believe I could become whatever I bothered to learn. No single idea has served me better.

 A great quote can provide personal inspiration and can be used to educate others. We like to open most of our blogs with an enlightening quotation that relates to the topic.

Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others’ success, and then standing back and letting them shine.

Below are my top 25 leadership quotes of all time and why I selected them. And how they are related to our ability to shape the future.

Check out our thoughts on team leverage

(Have a favorite quote that didn’t make our list? Share it out in the comments section below!)

Here is a short video on the leadership lessons from first follower.

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

Ego is one of the worst traits of a personality. Being humble is the best.

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

The leader’s job is to serve, simple as that. Period.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis

A leader certainly needs a good vision. But a vision is not worth much if it is not executed for shaping the future.

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

Followers’ growth and development are high on the list of a good leader’s priorities.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. —John Maxwell

It starts with knowledge and understanding. It continues with the ability to do what you say with an example.

Related: How to Create the Best Leadership Accountability

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead

Understand that everyone has a role in making the world around themselves a better place. However small that role may be.

Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. – Mike Krzyzewski

If you are not reliable and consistent, no one will be following for long, will they?

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. —Ralph Nader

A good leader knows that he often must be a good follower. And this world never has enough leaders, even if they are not required to lead often.

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes. —Peter Drucker

Results and the end state are the only things that count.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants to be done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt

Surround yourself with the best of the best. Delegate authority to act on your behalf. That also means the ability to accept mistakes and failures.

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. —Kenneth Blanchard

Can’t be said any simpler or more direct, can it? I certainly could not.

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. —Rosalynn Carter

A great leader is one who can be an effective coach and educator.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. —General Dwight Eisenhower

Ability to be a great motivator is at the top of my leadership skills required.

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. —Brian Tracy

Leaders have the required optimism to focus discussion on solutions. They also have courses of action to implement them.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George Patton

Give your people lots of room to roam and act on your behalf. Let them learn from experience. Realize there are lots of ways to achieve the desired results.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. —Bill Gates

Leaders must empower their people, otherwise, there is little to gain. And little trust.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. —General Colin Powell

Simplicity in design and action can never be overstated.

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

Getting the best out of everyone is a leader’s most important function, isn’t it?

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. —Thomas Jefferson

As a leader, you need to know when you should bend. And know when you need to stand your ground.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. —John F. Kennedy

No one is ever done with their learning, are they?

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. —Bill Bradley

Being able to find the right key is a mark of a great coach. Bill Bradley would certainly appreciate that skill.

What you do has a far greater impact than what you say. —Stephen Covey

Be a leader of a decisive action with speed.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. —Arnold Glasow

Your results rely on the ability to avoid time spent on problems.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. —Eleanor Roosevelt

Not fearing failure is one of the most important things to learn. It definitely is in my opinion.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. –George Patton

Now vs later … speed and decisiveness count a lot.

The bottom line

Business leadership competencies to shape the future, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about them. It takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.

What about your abilities to shape the future?  What type of leadership styles do you use? What key experiences can you share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add below?

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?

Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on  Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. 

More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Leadership Characteristics that Improve Influence