John C. Maxwell

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

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.

A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

And give… give more credit to others and don’t assume they’re mean until you know they’re actually mean.

Most great leaders in history that I’ve studied always need to get as wide a range of opinions as possible so that they can have sufficient information to make the right decisions.

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

If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God’s sake.

Leaders, true leaders, take responsibility for the success of the team, and understand that they must also take responsibility for the failure.

But real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to doing.

I feel like the thing we can do is celebrate people doing great work and create more cultural momentum and awareness that this is an important thing in the world. So when the next economic crisis hits and people are talking about where to cut from the budget, science isn’t the thing.

When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

The very essence of leadership is having vision.

A great leader has to be flexible, holding his ground on the major principles but finding room for compromises that can bring people together. A great leader has to be savvy at negotiations so we don’t drown every bill in pork barrel bridges to nowhere. I know how to stand my ground – but I also know that Republicans and Democrats need to find common ground to stand on as well.

The challenge of leadership is to create change and facilitate growth.

The art of leadership is a serious matter. One must not lag behind a movement, because to do so is to become isolated from the masses. But one must not rush ahead, for to rush ahead is to lose contact with the masses. He who wished to lead a movement must conduct a fight on two fronts–against those who lag behind and those who rush ahead.