What makes a great leader? While leadership styles vary, most experts agree that the best leaders have key characteristics in common. Gathered from a wide range of audiobooks—classic novels, management guides, sci-fi thrillers, political memoirs, and more—this collection of 55+ quotes reinforces and reflects on seven hallmarks of every great leader.
Do you possess these defining leadership qualities? Or do you still have some work to do? Read on!
Leadership Quality #1: Self-Awareness
Great leaders recognize not only their strengths but also their weaknesses. They understand the value of admitting their mistakes. And they're not obsessed with the image they project—instead, outstanding leader focus on the impact they make.
1. "Effective leaders are more secure in themselves; they possess a sense that they can handle whatever may come their way; their self-awareness and self-trust are bigger than the circumstances of change." -Kevin Cashman, Leadership from the Inside Out
2. "Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it." -Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
3. "The person more qualified to lead is not the physically stronger person. It is the more intelligent, the more knowledgeable, the more creative, more innovative. And there are no hormones for those attributes." -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
4. "Most of us, in ways that we are not entirely aware of, automatically associate leadership ability with imposing physical stature. We have a sense of what a leader is supposed to look like, and that stereotype is so powerful that when someone fits it, we simply become blind to other considerations." -Malcolm Gladwell, Blink
5. "Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery." -Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents
6. "If you can't swallow your pride, you can't lead. Even the highest mountain had animals that step on it." -Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
7. "You have any suggestions, make them. I'm in charge but humble. No need to salute when you see me.' Fraser said, 'Mind if we snicker every once in a while behind your back?' 'Hell, no,' I said. 'Everyone else does.'" -Robert B. Parker, The Widening Gyre
8. "The knowledge of how little you can do alone teaches you humility." -Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
Leadership Quality #2: Vision
Great leaders possess the insight, foresight, and imagination to see possibilities and the dynamism to inspire others to not just believe but achieve them.
9. "The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow." -Seth Godin, Tribes
10. "Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary and highly practical." -John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
11. "People commit to causes, not to plans." -James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner, A Leader's Legacy
12. "The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones." -Brandon Sanderson, The Alloy of Law
13. "Visionary leaders help people to see how their work fits into the big picture, lending people a clear sense not just that what they do matters, but also why." -Daniel Goleman, Primal Leadership
14. "No matter how vital we think the role of leadership in the rise of a mass movement, there is no doubt that the leader cannot create the conditions which make the rise of a movement possible. He cannot conjure a movement out of the void. There has to be an eagerness to follow and obey, and an intense dissatisfaction with things as they are, before movement and leader can make their appearance." -Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
15. "Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it." -Simon Sinek, Start with Why
16. "The real role of leadership is climate control—creating a climate of possibility. If you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate and couldn't have expected." -Ken Robinson, Lou Aronica, Creative Schools
17. "Great vision without great people is irrelevant." -Jim Collins, Good to Great
Leadership Quality #3: Integrity
Great leaders say what they mean, with clarity and transparency, and act with consistency and accountability. They follow through on their promises, stand firm on their convictions, and hold themselves to high ethical standards—even when nobody's watching.
18. "Leadership is not a license to do less; it is a responsibility to do more." -Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last
19. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." -Peter F. Drucker, The Essential Drucker
20. "There was a time when politicians needed to be great orators because the people themselves were grappling with the challenges of conscience, trying to perceive what is 'right' and what is 'wrong.' But today, not only do we miss the eloquence of public speaking, but the moral compass of so many leaders seems to be skewed." -John Lewis, Across That Bridge
21. "Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizen should be: partisans but never zealots, respectors of the facts which attend each situation but never benders of those facts, uncomfortable in positions of leadership but rarely unable to turn down a responsibility once it has been offered... or thrust upon them. They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power." -Stephen King, The Stand
22. "It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."
-J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
23. "This, I was coming to realize, was the nature of the presidency: Sometimes your most important work involved the stuff nobody noticed." -Barack Obama, A Promised Land
24. "In the end, you should always do the right thing, even if it's hard." -Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song
Leadership Quality #4: Influence
Great leaders guide the thinking and actions of others to get results. In the process, they inspire their people to believe in their own potential, stretch beyond their comfort zone, and tap into their own greatness.
25. "A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them." -Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension
26. "A leader leads by example, not by force." -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
27. "True leaders... do not make people into followers, but into other leaders." -John Holt, Teach Your Own
28. "A respectful dialogue with one's opponent almost invariably goes further than a harangue outside his or her window. If you want to change someone's mind, you must understand what need shapes his or her opinion. To prevail, you must first listen." -Sonia Sotomayor, My Beloved World
29. "By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected." -Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
30. "Leadership is not about control. Leadership is about influence... If you have influence with at least one person, that makes you a leader." -Ford Taylor, Relactional Leadership
31. "Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." -Peter F. Drucker, Management
32. "A leader... is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." -Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
33. "Leadership is communicating others' worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves." -Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
34. "Perhaps the ultimate test of a leader is not what you are able to do in the here and now—but instead what continues to grow long after you're gone." -Tom Rath, Strengths Based Leadership
Leadership Quality #5: Courage
Great leaders face their fears, speak up, act with confidence, and stand firm on their principles and convictions.
35. "Everyone admires the bold; no one admires the timid." -Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power
36. "He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command." -Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
37. "Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, and stimulated by the examples of their leaders, they had found their courage, and maintained their ancient reputation, with a zeal that did justice to the stern character of their commander." -James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
38. "Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are." -Steve Jobs, from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
39. "Who give more shape to sentient history: the good, who adhere to the tried and true, or those who seek to rouse being from their stupor and lead them to glory?" -James Luceno, Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
40. "We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced." -Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala
41. "When you break through a glass ceiling, you're going to get cut, and it's going to hurt." -Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold
Leadership Quality #6: Commitment
Great leaders possess determination and practice perseverance. They stay the course in pursuit of goals and remain steadfast in their quest to make change happen.
42. "I shall be up before you are awake; I shall be afield before you are up; and I shall have breakfasted before you are afield. In short, I shall astonish you all." -Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
43. "Leadership is fragile. It is more a matter of mind and heart than resources, and it seemed that we no longer had the heart for those things that demanded discipline, commitment, and risk." -Gene Kranz, Failure Is Not an Option
44. "Reform is usually possible only once a sense of crisis takes hold.... In fact, crises are such valuable opportunities that a wise leader often prolongs a sense of emergency on purpose." -Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit
45. "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." -Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope
46. "Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time." -Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
47. "We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change." -Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In
48. "What I know for sure is that there is no strength without challenge, adversity, resistance, and often pain. The problems that make you want to throw up your hands and holler 'Mercy!' will build your tenacity, courage, discipline, and determination." -Oprah Winfrey, What I Know for Sure
49. "Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure!" -George Orwell, Animal Farm
Leadership Quality #7: Empathy
Great leaders genuinely care for others. They recognize the value of each and every individual on their team, and respect each person's unique strengths and contributions.
50. "When you accept a leadership role, you take on extra responsibility for your actions toward others." -Kelley Armstrong, The Calling
51. "The day you are not solving problems or are not up to your butt in problems is probably a day you are no longer leading. If your desk is clean and no one is bringing you problems, you should be very worried. It means that people don't think you can solve them or don't want to hear about them. Or, far worse, it means they don't think you care." -Colin Powell,
52. "Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging." -Brené Brown, Dare to Lead
53. "To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart." -John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
54. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last
55. "In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders." -Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In
