21 Inspiring Quotes for Leaders

I've always loved the wisdom found in a short statement. In keynote speaker terms, we call these "sticky statements." If you're speaking to an audience and you make a statement that causes everyone to write it down, you just gave them a sticky statement.

As we've brought the first quarter of 2018 to a close and we look toward the remaining 75% of the year, I have one question for you...

How're you doing?

It's a fair question. It's a good question. I'm guessing you may have been like me back in January, full of excitement and hope for the new year. I had my New Year's Resolutions locked and loaded and ready to take on the world. Then, the whirlwind happens. You get caught up in the day to day list of tasks that need to be completed. We become busy but not necessarily productive.

This can be a killer for any leader because it affects the entire team. Leaders have to be time travelers and live in two different time zones. The leader must always have the vision for tomorrow. You know the goal and you know where you're taking the team.

What about today?

But then you also need to live in today... in the present. Work can only get done in the present. If you only focus on the vision of tomorrow, the work of today will never get done. Failure to recognize this will turn visions into dreams. Dreams with no chance of ever becoming reality.

To keep us all focused on our visions for 2018 and the work we need to get done today, here are 21 of my favorite inspiring quotes to keep us all moving.

Have a GREAT rest of the year!

Best,
Russ

"Things no one sees creates results everyone wants." - Craig Groeschel

"People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision." - John C. Maxwell

"Capital isn’t scarce; vision is." - Sam Walton

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." - C. S. Lewis

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision." - Helen Keller

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." - Warren G. Bennis

"There is no best; there's always a better." - Kevin Karschnik

"Great leaders must have two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate that vision clearly." - Simon Sinek

"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." - Jack Welch

"The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails." - John C. Maxwell

"Work on tomorrow after you debrief today." - Chris Hodges

"The decision to lead is a decision to change." - Russ Peterson Jr.

"A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves. A call to become something more." - Rosabeth Moss Kanter

"If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you." - Steve Jobs

"We will steer where we stare." - Lysa Terkeurst

"Vision without execution is hallucination." - Thomas Edison

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." - Ronald Reagan

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." - John F. Kennedy

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it." - Andrew Carnegie

"Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power." - Seth Berkley