37 Inspirational Leadership Quotes

INSPIRATION

Over the last ten years I’ve created a collection of leadership quotes that moved me, that got me thinking in a new direction. If you have a good one I'm missing please tweet it to us at @swotanalysiscom.

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"Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you". - Aldous Huxley

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"I said, once your children are born, you can never look at yourself through your eyes anymore, you always look at yourself through their eyes.”

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“In Africa we having a saying, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

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“Be so good they can't ignore you.” - Steve Martin

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I organize my life that way, because it’s a personal preference. I told our most senior executives at Amazon: "Because you’re a senior executive, you have more control over your environment, and you should have less stress." If senior executives are stressed out, I tell them, “Look, you shouldn’t be stressed out. Figure out what's causing it. Bring someone on your team who is good at that or who likes doing it, and have them shore you up in that regard.” - Jeff Bezos

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The first thing, especially on Wall Street, that you have to embrace, is the concept of distinguishing between liking to win and hating to lose," McCarthy said. "Now what I've learned over a long period of time is people who hate to lose are much more effective. Everybody likes to win. But if you hate to lose, you do everything in your power to make sure that experience doesn't happen too often."

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“Yeah, we’re always talking about following your passion, but we’re all part of the flow of history … you’ve got to put something back into the flow of history that’s going to help your community, help other people … so that 20, 30, 40 years from now … people will say, this person didn’t just have a passion, he cared about making something that other people could benefit from.” - Steve Jobs

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Vision is the dream. A company’s true north. It’s what inspires everyone day in and day out. It’s what you constantly need to be aspiring to. (linkedin)

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"Someone told me some secrets early on about living," Murray said. "You have to remind yourself that you can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed. No matter what it is, no matter what your job is, the more relaxed you are, the better you are."

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[Chance II] involves the kind of luck [Charles] Kettering... had in mind when he said, "Keep on going and chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it.  I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down."

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Chance III favors those who have a sufficient background of sound knowledge plus special abilities in observing, remembering, recalling, and quickly forming significant new associations.

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That's because "things" only provide momentary bursts of happiness. To be happier, don't chase as many things. Chase experiences. - jobs

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"Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs and is vital to performance," Gallup manager report

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"The one change that has improved my life the most has been to increasingly replace my opinions with curiosity." ~ Aaron Baldassare

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“Don’t to be too judgmental… be a little more measured on how you criticise because you may be not have all the information.” A photographer of remote villages

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“Platforms ultimately beat all apps” - Jim B

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"A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan any day,” - T Pickens

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"My dad used to ask my brother and me at the dinner table what we had failed at that week,” - Sara B

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The fastest way to make money is to solve a problem.The bigger the problem you solve, the more money you make.

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There are two ways to look at a blank sheet of paper. It can be the most frightening thing in the world, because you have to make the first mark on it. Or it can be the greatest opportunity in the world, because you get to make the first mark — you can let your imagination fly in any direction, and create whole new worlds! - Disney imagineer

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"the most effective way to be a successful leader and CEO is truly to employ the best people underneath you. It seems like such a simple concept, but each leader stressed the same thing: Finding the right people is hard."

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I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.  —Abraham Lincoln

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“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'no' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

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"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”- Matthew 7:13-14

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“for every problem under the sun, there is a solution or there is none.  If there is a solution, go and find it.  If there isn’t, never mind it.” - old poem

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“Bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with; good habits are hard to form, but easy to live with” - Ed Forman

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“Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal, or goal.” - Earl Nightingale

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You feel truly happy only when you are making progress, step-by-step, toward something that is important to you. - goal book

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“The more you give of yourself with no expectation of return the more that will come back to you from the most unexpected resources"

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I love a good inspirational leadership quote.  Over the last ten years I’ve created a collection of leadership quotes that moved me, that got me thinking in a new direction.  Today, I’m sharing my list of 37 amazing leadership quotes with you.  Please enjoy and if I’m missing a good quote please send it my way.

The Chinese tell the story of an old man who owned a bony plow horse. One spring afternoon the horse ran away. The old man's friends, trying to console him, said, "We're so sorry about your horse, old man. What a misfortune you've had." But the old man said, "Bad news, good news-who knows?"

A few days later the horse returned home leading a herd of wild horses. Again the friends came running. Filled with jubilation, they cried, "How wonderful!" But the old man whispered, "Good news, bad news-who knows?"

The next day, when the farmer's son was trying to ride one of the new horses, the young man was thrown to the ground and broke both legs. The friends gasped. The old man stood still and said, "Bad news, good news-who knows?"

And a short time later when the village went to war and all the young men were drafted to fight, the farmer's son was excused because of two broken legs. Good news. Bad news. Who knows?

The moral of this proverb is that good and bad are relative to how we see them in the bigger picture.

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"Happiness Is Having Something to Look Forward to” … and making progress towards it - Tracy Morgan

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"Using OKR’s without a mission is like using jet fuel without a jet” - Christina  Wodtke

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Two things are necessary for achievement: a plan and not quite enough time. -Leonard Bernstein

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“Where here is no vision, people perish” - Proverbs 29:18

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"Doesn't matter where you start - top down or bottom up, so long as you can identify the need, you can get the deal!” - Bernie

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“You need to be pursue something of interest at all times, and if you get paid to do that - all the better” - Jim B

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Character, the sports writer said.  They know it when they see it - it’s the ability to dig down and find the strength even when things are going against you. - Mindset by Carol Dweck

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