Leadership teacher John Maxwell defines leadership as simply ‘influence.’ That’s not one of the 6 quotes mentioned in the title, you can have that one for free, but it is a good place to begin. With that definition in mind, many of us do more leading than we realise. We lead at home, we lead at work, we lead at church. You don’t have to be the main boss or the pastor to lead – anywhere where you influence others towards a behaviour or attitude is a place where you’re leading.

That might seem scary to you. Leadership, of any kind, is a responsibility. Whether you’ve had plenty of leadership training or none at all, we all can grow and change in our leadership. To help fire you up about leading, we’ve listed our favourite quotes about leadership. Think about the areas of your life and leadership they might apply to and be sure to let us know your favourite leadership quotes!

“What gets celebrated, gets repeated. What you tolerate, you replicate.” – Unknown.

“Being a leader means you give away all the credit and take all the hits.” – Larry Hubatka

“95% of leadership is carrying heavy stuff.” – A friend of mine, mostly talking about setting up tables and chairs for church events. I also think it applies metaphorically as well!

“You don’t lead by hitting people over the head— that’s assault, not leadership.” –Dwight Eisenhower

“Leaders go first.” – Mark Miller. I think this mostly applies to doing the hard things, not always being front of the queue!

“Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant.”- Jesus, in Mark 10:43