In the vast ocean of leadership, navigating with the compass of ‘doing the right thing' often sets apart the extraordinary from the ordinary. Leadership is more than just making the tough calls; it's about cultivating an unwavering commitment to integrity, standing by your values, and leading by example. This powerful amalgamation is precisely what our compilation of “leadership doing the right thing quotes” is all about. These quotes are not just words but pearls of wisdom gleaned from the lives of those who've walked the path of virtuous leadership, their actions echoing louder than words.
Let's take a moment to appreciate the story of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, renowned for his mental toughness and integrity. During the Civil War, Lincoln displayed an unwavering commitment to his belief in the Union's preservation, facing insurmountable challenges and heartbreaking losses. His leadership was steeped in the resolve to do the right thing, even when faced with grave adversity. His life is a testament to the saying, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today,” and serves as an inspiration for our collection of “leadership doing the right thing quotes.” Let these quotes inspire and guide you on your leadership journey, reinforcing the profound power of doing the right thing.
Inspiring Leadership in Action
1. “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
2. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
3. “Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.” – Pete Hoekstra
4. “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” – Ray Kroc
5. “The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
6. “Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge.” – Simon Sinek
7. “Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word.” – Brian Tracy
8. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell
9. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
10. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis
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The Impact of Ethical Leadership
- “There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity, and courage.” – Fuchan Yuan
- “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Not every decision is an economic one. The right course isn't always the smart course.” – Jack Welch
- “Goodness is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.” – Dennis Prager
- “The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” – Malcolm X
- “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” – Alexander the Great
- “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.” – Oprah Winfrey
Leadership and Doing the Right Thing
- “Leadership is not about being in control. It's about guiding others to success—in this case, the organization's success.” – Joe Batten
- “The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “To do what is right is wonderful. To teach what is right is even more wonderful—and much harder.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “The true test of a leader is whether his followers will adhere to his cause from their own volition, enduring the most arduous hardships without being forced to do so, and remaining steadfast in the moments of greatest peril.” – Xenophon
- “When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “Ethical leadership is knowing your core values and having the courage to live them in all parts of your life in service of the common good.” – Bill George
- “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” – Mark Twain
- “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
Related Article: 50 Inspiring Quotes Reminding Us That Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy
Leaders as Agents of Change
- “You manage things; you lead people.” – Grace Hopper
- “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” – John Buchan
- “Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.” – Simon Sinek
- “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.” – Colin Powell
- “As a leader, I am tough on myself and I raise the standard for everybody; however, I am very caring because I want people to excel at what they are doing so that they can aspire to be me in the future.” – Indra Nooyi
- “Doing what is right isn't the problem. It is knowing what is right.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
- “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “Ethics is not definable, is not implementable, because it is not conscious; it involves not only our thinking but also our feeling.” – Valdemar W. Setzer
- “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” – Arnold H. Glasow
The Essence of True Leadership
- “You don't lead by hitting people over the head—that's assault, not leadership.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example.” – Edward Hennessy
- “A leader is best when people barely know he exists when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu
- “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
- “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – Norman Schwarzkopf
- “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” – Peter Drucker
- “A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” – J.P. Morgan
- “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” – Kenneth Blanchard
- “A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example.” – Joe DiMaggio
- “To be a leader, you must stand for something, or you will fall for anything.” – Anthony Pagano
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