Ecrivains & spécialistes / Writters & Scholars

Leadership is the process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing wiling effort to be expended to achieve a purpose Jacobs and Jaques

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.  Antoine de St. Exupery

Leadership is an intangible quality with no clear definition. That's probably a good thing, because if the people who were being led knew the definition, they would hunt down their leaders and kill them. Scott Adams

Leadership is about articulating visions, embodying values, and creating the environment within which things can be accomplished. Richards and Engl

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings. Peter Drucker

To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves! Lao Tsu

I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be. Warren Bennis

Leadership is intentional influence. Michael McKinney

The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership.  Gary Wills

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned. Harold Geneen

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. Max DePree

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Stephen R. Covey

He who has great power should use it lightly. Seneca

Leadership is not magnetic personality, which can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people", that is flattery. 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

Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration—of oneself and of others. Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine. Lance Secretan

The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader. Albert Einstein

Leaders conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts. John Gardner

We have this obsession with “leadership”, its intention may to be to empower people, but its effect is often to disempower them. By focusing on the single person, even in the context of others, leadership becomes part of the syndrome of individuality that is sweeping the world and undermining organizations In particular and communities in general… For starters, let us recognize that separating leadership from management is part of the problem. Mintzberg