Great Quotes to Inspire Successful Leadership in 2022
Each year brings a raft of new books on business leadership, along with new theories on how to thrive by inspiring the people on your team.
Some of the best ideas end up making the point that the most effective leadership in today’s business world draws upon the wisdom from great leaders of the past. Philosophers, generals and political leaders discovered fundamental leadership traits the hard way, and their timeless guidance is invaluable.
Here are some key lessons:
Share the Credit
Many contemporary leaders embrace this concept, but it’s not a new idea. In ancient China, philosopher Lao Tzu advised: “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.”
Centuries later, American industrialist Andrew Carnegie concurred: “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”
Author John Maxwell added: “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.”
Cultivate Others
A simplistic view of leadership is that it is a solitary, ego-driven exercise. But great leaders know when to put ego aside. Just as in the case of sharing credit for successes, good leaders focus on nurturing the people they lead, identifying their strengths and encouraging growth in these traits and talents.
Jack Welch, the renowned former head of GE, noted: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
Sam Walton, another entrepreneur with an amazing success story, agreed: “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
Trust and Delegate
As you maximize the potential of your team, you must also trust them to handle the missions you give them. That means standing aside and letting your people soar.
Teddy Roosevelt, no shrinking violet, put it succinctly: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
Chart a Resolute Course
The nurturing, delegating and self-effacing aspects of leadership may give the misimpression that great leadership is essentially passive. This is far from the truth.
Once you’ve cultivated, inspired and won the loyalty of your team, they’re ready to follow your vision. A successful leader must always keep his or her eye on that vision, moving steadily toward a goal without getting bogged down in distractions or concerns about popularity.
“The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground,” said Winston Churchill, who knew something about moving a complacent political class toward a goal that was absolutely essential to achieve.
Similarly, American author and minister Max Lucado concluded: “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”
Yet even as you realize that you cannot please everyone, successful leaders naturally attract followers through their example. This idea, too, is both timeless and time-tested. An ancient Chinese proverb wisely observed: “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”