Reading_B2/C1_The 25 Best Leadership Quotes of All Time
Skills: Reading, Vocabulary Expansion & Writing Exercise
English Level: B2 (Upper Intermediate) and/or C1 (Advanced & Proficient)
Instructions:
Read the quotes below and be sure to highlight and take note of any new vocabulary words, interesting phrases and expressions.
Writing Exercise - Select your top 5 quotes to discuss during your next class. Prepare to discuss the following for each quote - A) Why did you select the quote? - B)What is your interpretation of the meaning? - C) What lessons could be learned from each of the quotes and how might this change someone’s perspective on leadership?
Check number 1 “Example homework answers” to see how you can formulate your answers for the writing exercise above.
1. "Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership." --James Humes
Sample homework answer: I chose this quote because it is short and simple yet has a bigger meaning once you consider the words in a larger context. For me, this quote is about being aware of your words whenever you speak to others. You never know when there will be an opportunity to network, shine and educate others. This is why we must be conscious of the words we speak to ensure that they have the most impact as possible. As I reflect on this quote and the deeper meaning, I believe that people can be more aware of social interactions and the impressions they leave upon others.
Auditioning - To compete for a trial hearing given to a singer, actor, or other performer to test suitability for employment, professional training or competition, etc.
2. "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." --Woodrow Wilson
Merely - Simply
Enable - To make possible or easy; to give power, means, competence, or ability to someone or something.
Amply - an extremely plentiful or over-sufficient quantity or supply:
Enrich - to add greater value or significance to
Impoverish - to make poor in quality, productiveness, etc.; exhaust the strength or richness of something or someone.
3. "A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them." --M.D. Arnold
4. "Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." --Seth Godin
5. "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
6. "To add value to others, one must first value others." --John Maxwell
7. "The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been." --Henry Kissinger
8. "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Treat - to act or behave toward (a person) in some specified way
Ought - should; used to indicate something that is probable
9. "I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people." --Mahatma Gandhi
Muscles - an organ, composed of muscle tissue, that contracts to produce a particular movement.
10. "There are no office hours for leaders." --Cardinal J. Gibbons
11. "One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." --Arnold Glasow
12. "I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody." --Herbert Swope
Formula - any fixed or conventional method for doing something
To please - to give pleasure or satisfaction; be agreeable
13. "Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult." --Warren Bennis
Synonymous - equal in meaning; expressing or implying the same idea
Precisely - exactly.
14. "Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50 percent of your time in leading yourself--your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20 percent leading those with authority over you and 15 percent leading your peers." --Dee Hock
Seek - to try to find or discover by searching or questioning
Ethics - the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.
Conduct - personal behavior; way of acting.
Authority - the power to determine, settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine.
15. "Leaders don't inflict pain, they share pain." --Max Depree
16. "Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them." --Diogenes of Sinope
Distinguish - to recognize as distinct or different.
17. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing." --Peter F. Drucker
18. "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." --Ralph Nader
19. "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." --Warren G. Bennis
Capacity - ability
20. "There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier." --Charles F. Kettering
Limitless - without limit; boundless
Frontier - the limit of knowledge or the most advanced achievement in a particular field; an outer limit in a field of endeavor, especially one in which the opportunities for research and development have not been exploited
21. "A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit." --Arnold Glasow
Blame - to place the responsibility for (a fault, error, etc.)
Credit - honor given for some action, quality; a source of pride or honor:
22. "Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems." --Brian Tracy
23. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." --Dwight D. Eisenhower
24. "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
Barely - only just; scarcely; no more than; almost nothing at all
Aim - focused goal.
Fulfilled - satisfied; completed or carried out.
25. "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." --Martin Luther King Jr.
Genuine - authentic; real.
Consensus - majority of opinion; general agreement or concord; harmony.
Molder - to work into a required shape or form; shape.
AND HERE ARE A FEW BONUS QUOTES
"A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs." --Robert Townsend
"Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better." --Bill Bradley
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." --Eleanor Roosevelt
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."--Abraham Lincoln
Adapted from: inc.com/lolly-daskal/the-100-best-leadership-quotes-of-all-time.html
