What is the best definition of Leadership?
Is it simply having the office or position
of a leader? Or is it the action of leading a
group of people or an organization?
Leadership doesn't have anything to do with seniority or position of hierarchy. It also doesn't have anything to do with titles or personal attributes.
I found a good definition of leadership from Kevin Kruse, a contributor at Forbes and the author of "Great Leaders Have No Rules." He said: "Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, toward the achievement of a goal." It is this capacity to lead with influence while empowering others that make the most significant impact.
True leadership is about inspiring people to do their best. To encourage them to keep learning and achieving. It's about people, not processes. It's actually not about you, but what you do to help others. This is something that my husband is mastering well in his leadership position. There is more success in an organization when you focus more on your people and not managing "all the things." (To read more about this concept, he highly recommends "People Before Things" by Chris Laping. A good read for teens too.)
Following are 28 inspirational quotes about leadership. For your homeschool: Choose one quote to read each day. Create a conversation with your teen about the meaning of that quote. What skills and characteristics are given as the essentials of leadership? Have your teen respond with how they can use their new wisdom to display good leadership right now.
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| Photo by Anastasia Petrova on Unsplash |
"If your actions inspire others
to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a
leader." --John Quincy Adams
"True
leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the
leader."
--John C. Maxwell
"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." --Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
"There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being - to help someone succeed." --Alan Loy McGinnis
"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
"We
must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We
must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must
serve before we can lead." --William Arthur Ward
"Leadership
should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be
affected by it." --Marian Anderson
"My research debunks the myth that many people seem to have . . . that you become a leader by fighting your way to the top. Rather, you become a leader by helping others to the top. Helping your employees is as important, and many times more so, than trying to get the most work out of them." --William Cohen
"The
most valuable "currency" of any organization is the initiative and
creativity of its members. Every leader has the solemn moral responsibility to
develop these to the maximum in all his people. This is the leader's highest
priority." --W. Edwards Deming
"People
do not care how much you know until they know how much you care."
--John
C. Maxwell
"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 F. Drucker
"The
goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The
goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of
themselves." --J. Carla Nortcutt
"If
leadership serves only the leader, it will fail. Ego satisfaction, financial
gain, and status can all be valuable tools for a leader, but if they become the
only motivations, they will eventually destroy a leader. Only when service for
a common good is the primary purpose are you truly leading." --Sheila
Murray Bethel
"A
person who is worthy of being a leader wants power not for himself, but in
order to be of service." --U.S. Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
"The
challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak;
be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid;
be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly." --Jim
Rohn
"Use
power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes
nor to make a great show in the world, not a name. There is but one just use of
power, and it is to serve people." –U.S. President George
Bush
"As
leaders shift their focus to customers and quality, they realize that the old
authoritarian leadership style does not work anymore. To achieve quality,
service, and rapid response, leaders must utilize all available talent. They
must find ways to inspire, involve, and empower employees. They must create a
work environment that encourages commitment, innovation, and cooperation.
Instead of evaluating, leaders now coach. Instead of doing, they delegate.
Instead of telling, they facilitate. No one is expected to boss anyone.
Everyone is expected to participate." --Dr. Suzanne Willis Zoglio
"He that cannot obey cannot command." --Benjamin Franklin
"If
you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and
don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless
immensity of the sea."
--Antoine
de Saint-Exupery
"Leadership
is getting people to help you when they are not obligated to do so."
--John
C. Maxwell
"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
"No
leader can possibly have all the answers . . . . The actual solutions about how
best to meet the challenges of the moment have to be made by the people closest
to the action…the leader has to find the way to empower those frontline people,
to challenge them, to provide them with the resources they need, and then to
hold them accountable. As they struggle with . . . this challenge, the leader
becomes their coach, teacher, and facilitator. Change how you define
leadership, and you change how you run a company." --Steve Miller
"To
lead the people, walk behind them." --Lao Tzu
"As
we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower
others."
--Bill
Gates
"Leaders
don't inflict pain - they share pain." --Max Depree
"Leaders
must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate
them."
--John
Maxwell
"People
are more inclined to be drawn in if their leader has a compelling vision. Great
leaders help people get in touch with their own aspirations and then will help
them forge those aspirations into a personal vision." --John
Kotter
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