Leadership Development: What is Leadership?

Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.
- Stephen R. Covey, The 8th Habit

Leadership is influence.
- John E. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You

Leadership is Authenticity, Not Style.
- Bill George, Authentic Leadership

Leadership is... Joyous! It’s a matchless opportunity to make a difference by marshalling the talents of others to a... Seriously Cool Cause.
- Tom Peters, The Leadership 50

Leadership is the set of qualities that causes people to follow.
 - Marshall Loeb and Stephen Kindel, Leadership for Dummies

Leadership is making it possible for others to follow by thinking strategically and focusing on the right directions, removing the obstacles, developing ownership, and taking self-directed actions.
- James A. Belasco and Ralph C. Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo
 

Leadership Quotes

"A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did it themselves."
- Lao-tzu, 6th century bce Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism

 "Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them."
- Winston Churchill 20th century British statesman

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say; I just watch what they do."
- Andrew Carnegie American industrialist and philanthropist

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."
- Benjamin Franklin 18th century US statesman, writer and scientist

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."
- George Washington First U.S. President 1789

"I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm."
- Jim Rohn, Motivational Speaker