Lesson 1 Introduction to Leadership
What is said by others about leadership?
Notable Quotes:
Leadership is Example
Chief Executive Pastor Jerry McClain said, “The best example of leadership is leadership by example.”
Albert Einstein said, “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.”
M. Kelly said, “The difference between a boss and a leader is that a boss says, ‘Go!’ while a leader says, ‘Let’s go!’”
American Businessman Thomas J. Watson said, “Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.”
John Maxwell said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
Leadership is Character
Warren Bennis, Ph.D. said, “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.”
1st century Latin writer Publius Syrus said, “The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue. None ought to govern who is not better than the governed.”
Leadership is Influence
John C. Maxwell said, “Leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less.”
Robert Clinton said, “A leader is one who influences a specific group of people to move in a God-given direction.”
Robert K. Greenleaf said, “The only test of leadership is that somebody follows.”
Charles S. Lauer said, “Leaders don’t force people to follow; they invite them on a journey.”
Keith Mullen said, “Leadership is the desire and ability to inspire individual achievement, while a leader is just a guy at the top of the heap worried about his own.”
American President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
American President John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
G. “Buck” Rodgers said, “Leadership is the ability of a single individual through his or her actions to motivate others to higher levels of achievement.”
Leadership is Serving
John Maxwell said, “The first step to leadership is servant-hood.”
Solon said, “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”
Sam Rayburn Said, “You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”
Lao Tzu said, “Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.”
Max De Pree said, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say, ‘Thank you.’ In between, the leader is a servant.”
Leadership is Lifting Others
“Blessed is the leader who seeks the best for those he serves.” –Unknown
“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.” –Sam Walton
“Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.” –Tom Landry
“A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.” –Unknown
“Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.” –Admiral James B. Stockdale
Leadership is Vision
“Leadership is not magnetic personality — that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people — that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”–Peter F. Drucker
“Leadership is the special quality which enables people to stand up and pull the rest of us over the horizon.” –James L. Fisher.
“The first basic ingredient of leadership is a guiding vision. The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do – professionally and personally – and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures.” –Warren Bennis
“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion.”–Theodore Hesburgh
“Leadership: Seeing further down the road than those around me.” –Bill Gothard
Leadership is Daring
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Emerson
“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” –Henry Kissinger
“There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two.” –Bernd Brecher
Leadership is Courage under Pressure
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.” –John Kenneth Galbraith
“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” –Publilius Syrus
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”–Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Leadership is the ability to hide your panic from others.” –Unknown
“Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.” –Jesse Jackson
Leadership is Discipleship
“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.” –Walter Lippmann
“How do you know you have won? When the energy is coming the other way and when your people are visibly growing individually and as a group.”–Sir John Harvey-Jones
“Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long-term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values.” –Mike Vance
“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” –Ralph Nader
Other Leadership Quotes
“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
“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or to get all the credit for doing it.” –Andrew Carnegie
The challenge of leadership is…
- to be strong, but not rude.
- to be kind, but not weak.
- to be bold, but not bully.
- to be thoughtful, but not lazy.
- to be humble, but not timid.
- to be proud, but not arrogant.
- to have humor, but without folly.
–Jim Rohn
What is the definition of “leadership”?
There are many definitions that have been given to the concept of “leadership.” The following are just a few of them:
From Wikipedia
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.”
A definition more inclusive of followers comes from Alan Keith of Genentech who said “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.”
From BusinessDictionary.com
“In its essence, leadership in an organizational role involves (1) establishing a clear vision, (2) sharing (communicating) that vision with others so that they will follow willingly, (3) providing the information, knowledge, and methods to realize that vision, and (4) coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members or stakeholders.”
From BNET Business Dictionary
“Leadership is the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance.”
From Answers.Com
“Leadership is a process in which a leader attempts to influence his or her followers to establish and accomplish a goal or goals. In order to accomplish the goal, the leader exercises his or her power to influence people. That power is exercised in earlier stages by motivating followers to get the job done and in later stages by rewarding or punishing those who do or do not perform to the level of expectation. Leadership is a continuous process, with the accomplishment of one goal becoming the beginning of a new goal. The proper reward by the leader is of utmost importance in order to continually motivate followers in the process.
Others
“The new leader … is one who commits people to action, who converts followers into leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change.”–Warren Bennis
“… persons who, by word and/or personal example, markedly influence the behaviors, thoughts and feelings of a significant number of their fellow human beings.” –Howard Gardner
Most of the definitions of “leadership” have certain common elements to them.
- Leadership involves establishing direction, vision, and purpose.
- Leadership involves exciting others regarding that vision and purpose.
- Leadership involves motivating others to join with that vision and purpose.
- Leadership involves equipping others to succeed in that vision and purpose.
- Leadership involves rewarding those who contribute to the vision and purpose.
- Leadership involves raising other leaders with a sense of vision and purpose.
- Leadership involves releasing other leaders to fulfill their vision and purpose.