John C. Maxwell Leadership Quotations [Page 2]

Leaders will not experience long-term success unless a lot of people want them to.

Leadership is influence.

Leadership is not a right-it is a responsibility.

Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.

Credibility is a leader's currency. With it, he or she is solvent; without it, he or she is bankrupt.

Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.

The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.

It is hard to feel bad about yourself when you are doing something good for someone else. There are a lot of ways to lift your self-esteem, but making a positive difference in another's life has got to be my best leadership guidance. Serving others and working to add value to them will lift your spirits in a way that nothing else will. Trust me on this one.

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

Don't buy into the notion that mistakes can somehow be avoided. They can't be.

If you want to be positive, upbeat, and passionate, you need to take responsibility for being that way.

Leadership is influence. It is the ability to obtain followers. When the leader lacks confidence, the followers have no commitment. A leader is great not because of his power, but because of his ability to empower others.

People are training for success when they should be training for failure.

Leaders who practice the Law of Victory believe that anything less than success is unacceptable. And they have no Plan B.

As a leader, you will never get ahead until your people are behind you.

Finish every day and be done with it..

The bottomline in leadership isn't how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others.

Thinking is hard; that's why so few do it.

Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself. Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things with him. Significance comes when he develops leaders to do great things for him. But a legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him.

The best leaders realize their success depends on their people.

To do something really big, let go of your ego, and get ready to be part of a team.

Encourage the many; mentor the few.

But the law of magnetism really is true: who you are is who you attract.

The real leader holds the power, not just the position.

The real test of leadership isn't where you start out. It's where you end up.

When people respect someone as a person, they admire her. When they respect her as a friend, they love her. When they respect her as a leader, they follow her.

The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream.

Leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness.

A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do." (Leroy Eims)

42% of college graduates never read a book after college.

Creativity requires the willingness to look stupid.

Listen twice as much as you speak.

We have to pick and choose between good and a little bit better.

To succeed in life, we must stay within our strength zone but continually move outside our comfort zone.

To gain credibility, you must consistently demonstrate three things: Initiative: You have to get up to go up. Sacrifice: You have to give up to go up. Maturity: You have to grow up to go up. If you show the way, people will want to follow you. The higher you go, the greater the number of people who will be willing to travel with you.

Cats do what cats do, ducks do what ducks do, and eagles do what eagles, do. If you take a duck and ask it to do an eagles' job, shame on you. As a leader, your job is to help your ducks to become better ducks and your eagles better eagles - to put individuals in the right places and help them reach their potential.

The great leaders in history were great not because of what they owned or earned but because of what they gave their lives to accomplish. They made a difference!

Perhaps our greatest power in life is the power to choose. Without question, choices are the most determining factor in how our lives turn out.

What I had been taught all my life was not true: experience is not the best teacher! Some people learn and grow as a result of their experience; some people don't. Everybody has some kind of experience. It's what you do with that experience that matters.

Our days are like identical suitcases. Even though they are all the same size, some people are able to pack more into them then others. The reason? They know what to pack.

Leadership is the willingness to put oneself at risk.

Leadership is the readiness to stand out in a crowd.

While everyone exercises influence, the size and strength of our influence depends upon our effort. No one leads well without paying the price of discipline. As we push ourselves to grow and to learn, we enlarge our sphere of influence.

Leadership development is a lifetime journey, not a quick trip.

You don't become an effective leader by default.

We cannot lead anyone farther than we have been ourselves.

You can't become a leader in one conference.

Knowing how to do a job is the accomplishment of labor - showing others is the accomplishment of the teacher - making sure the work is done by others is the accomplishment of the manager - inspiring others to do better work is the accomplishment of the leader.

It takes a lot of people to create a success. That's why I say that few leaders are successful unless a lot of people want them to be.

In my experience, followers always ask leaders 3 questions: 1) Do you care 4 me? 2) Can you help me? 3) Can I trust you?

Good leaders understand that they are stewards. They must find the best people they can, giving them the opportunity to join in the journey developing them, and encouraging them to reach their potential. But they must hold on to people lightly. Those who start with you seldom finish with you.