Leadership is not magnetic personality—that 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

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him….But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, “We did it ourselves. – Lao Tzu

Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing. – Mary D. Poole

The main characteristics of effective leadership are intelligence, integrity or loyalty, mystique, humor, discipline, courage, self sufficieny and confidence. – James L. Fisher

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless. – Charles deGaulle

Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do. The visible signs of artful leadership are expressed, ultimately, in its practice. – Max DePree

We hope that these inspiring business quotes and leadership have given you great impetus to start things in an energetic manner.

It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because… All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. – Mark Cuban

Creating a close connection to those you do business with has its many risks, rewards and consequences. There are few things in business I have encountered that are more difficult than firing someone, particularly if that someone has always been, or has become a friend. On the flipside, I have been rewarded with many friends. – Mark Cuban

The entrepreneur is not really interested in doing the work; he is interested in creating the way the company operates. In that regard, the entrepreneur is an inventor. He or she loves to invent, but does not love to manufacture or sell or distribute what he or she invents. – Michael Gerber

I have been quoted saying that, in the future, all companies will be Internet companies. I still believe that. More than ever, really – Andrew Grove

We hope that this blog on business quotes was more than enough to make you motivated all over again.

A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it. ~William Feather

A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships. ~Stephen Covey

All lasting business is built on friendship. ~Alfred A. Montapert

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing… layout, processes, and procedures. ~Tom Peters

An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15 percent commission. ~Fred Allen

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. ~Bill Gates

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today. ~Laurence J. Peter

An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s. ~Will Rogers

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department. ~Andrew Carnegie

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. ~Bill Gates

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. ~Dale Carnegie

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. ~Dale Carnegie