1.Paul “Bear” Bryant
“We’re gonna butt heads until I see what I want.”
Bear Bryant figured out a leadership formula during his coaching career that produced national championships in college football, as the head coach at the University of Alabama. He won six national championships, which is the most by any Division I coach. His quote exudes confidence and aggressiveness. He knew what excellence looked like and he wasn’t going to stop until he saw it. Don’t integrate this quote into your style until you have the credibility to back it up.
2. Vince Lombardi
“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”
Leaders are made. It takes hard work to become a confident and successful leader. It takes commitment and dedication to build a team and produce results.
3. Andy Grove
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”
Andy Grove has packed some great lessons into this quote. Leaders have to challenge complacency. Once a team starts having success there seems to be a tendency to think you don’t have to work as hard to sustain it. Successful leaders remind their teams that it takes just as much effort to sustain success as it did to achieve it the first time. We were less subtle than this is Fallujah, Iraq. We had “Complacency Kills” signs all over our forward operating base. You could see the signs every time you were leaving the wire. It was a reminder to do things the right way. Don’t skip your pre-combat checks and pre-combat inspections. It doesn’t matter how many successful patrols you have executed. The next one could be your last if you let complacency set in.
I’m also a fan of “Only the paranoid survive.” You need to be paranoid that your competitor is going to beat you and take market share. You need to be paranoid that someone is working on a better product or service that will make your company irrelevant. However, you need to do this in a healthy way. It needs to drive you to be better. It needs to drive you towards excellence. Do not be paranoid of people on your team. I worked for a boss that did this and it made for a very uncomfortable working environment. If you don’t trust the people on your team, fire them.
4. Pat Summitt
“Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results.”
It is the leader’s responsibility to ensure the individuals they are leading become a team. Pat Summitt made successful teams at the University of Tennessee, as the women’s basketball coach. She won eight Division I national championships as the head coach. Her attitude was to outwork everyone else and she created that attitude in her teams.
5. Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”
The integrity of a leader is so important because your team needs to trust you. It will be extremely difficult to accomplish anything of significance as a leader if your team does not trust you.
6. General George S. Patton, U.S. Army
“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.”
This is a confidence driven quote by General Patton. I have had more than one boss in my time pull me aside privately and explain that they are in charge. I respected them for these private discussions and in each case we grew to trust each other more. They realized very quickly that I didn’t want their job. I wanted us to produce results together and accomplish the mission. Make sure you can back it up if you have this attitude.
7. Sam Walton
“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.”
This is exactly right. Don’t tear your people down. It is your job to build them up. Don’t cheer and compliment them if the team is not producing results, but when they do succeed make sure to acknowledge their accomplishments. It has to be sincere and genuine.
8. Lieutenant General John A. Lejeune, USMC
“Leadership is the sum of those qualities of intellect, human understanding, and moral character that enables a person to inspire and control a group of people successfully.”
This is an outstanding definition of leadership. Let’s zero in on the word inspire. You can’t know what will inspire every single individual on your team. Some members of your team will be inspired by pictures of mountains or beaches. Some members on your team will be inspired by quotes from historical figures. Other members on your team won’t care about pictures or quotes. Your purpose as the leader is to communicate the goals and objectives for the team. Communicate what winning looks like. Be firm, fair, and consistent. You can put up pictures of mountains, beaches, and historical figure quotes but don’t expect every person on your team to be inspired by it. If you get to know each member of your team, you will know what inspires each one of them individually. That intimate knowledge will allow you to inspire your entire team to new heights.
9. Henry Ford
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”
It is the leader’s responsibility to make a group of individuals into a team, sustain it, and create success. Confident and successful leaders don’t just let events unfold. They create teams through their energy, passion, and effort.
10. Helen Keller
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”
Your character as a leader will be revealed through your actions and behavior. Ensure you are ready for the trials and tests that will come. You will be challenged as a leader and you need to be ready.
I hope you enjoyed these leadership quotes. What famous leadership quotes drive you personally, and what do they mean to you?