157 Bad Leader Quotes

Following is our list of bad leader quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about being a good leader.

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Famous Bad Leader Quotes

Poor leaders motivate those following them with false promises of promotions, success, and a great tomorrow but rarely deliver on those promises. — Lewis Howes

The worst mistake a leader can make is to mentor no one, choose no successor and leave no legacy. — Myles Munroe

Weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy — Sun Tzu

A leader's job is to develop committed followers. Bad leaders destroy their followers' sense of commitment. — Dean Smith

Leaders can be wrong - but they can not be unclear. — Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Recognizing poor leadership is a vital skill to help you achieve greatness. — Lewis Howes

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader. — Golda Meir

The man who always takes and never gives is not a leader. He is a parasite. — Napoleon Hill

Players that aren't true leaders but try to be, always bash other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch already assume others will make mistakes. — Sayings

A leader leads by example not by force. - Sun Tzu

A leader leads by example not by force. — Sun Tzu

A good leader is someone who knows what he's bad at, and hires someone who's good at it to take care of it for him. — John Flanagan

To keep the wrong leader in the wrong place prevents the right leader from being in the right place. — Aubrey Malphurs

A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops. — John J. Pershing

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself. — Joel A. Barker

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it. — Andrew Carnegie

Short Bad Leader Quotes

  • A leader is a dealer in hope. — Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Leaders grow; they are not made. — Peter Drucker
  • The most serious failure of leadership is the failure to foresee — Robert K. Greenleaf
  • Leadership is not for the faint of heart — Bill Hybels
  • There can be no leadership when there is no team. — Jocko Willink
  • A country without a strong leader will go down. — Recep Tayyip Erdogan
  • You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Bad Leader Image Quotes

Bad leader quote One bad chapter does not mean your story is over.
One bad chapter does not mean your story is over.

Good Leader Bad Leader Quotes

The best thing you can give as a leader is a reason to trust. People want to trust. They're hungry for it. But they're selective. They'll only give it to a motivator, a communicator, a teacher, a real person. Someone who in good times and bad always does the right thing. — Jeffrey R. Immelt

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics. — Barack Obama

There are good leaders who actively guide and bad leaders who actively misguide. Hence, leadership is about persuasion, presentation and people skills. — Shiv Khera

Bad leader quote A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compas
A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others.

Good leadership is pervasive, persuasive, and persistent. Bad leadership is poisoned with pedanticism, posturing, self-importance. — Marcia Whicker

The leader’s Attitude is like a thermostat for the place she works. If her attitude is good, the atmosphere is pleasant, and the environment is easy to work in. But if her attitude is bad, the temperature is insufferable. — John C. Maxwell

You have to remain cool under fire and let criticism roll off you. Good leaders handle conflict easily and bad ones are eaten up by it. — Donald Trump

Bad leader quote If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it cam
If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it came from.

Is self-interest a bad thing? We want our leaders to be pure and good, but at the same time we want them to be effective, and to be effective you often have to be ruthless and not bound by ideology or the same morals that we pretend to hold ourselves to. — Beau Willimon

Aspiring dictators sometimes win elections, and elected leaders sometimes govern badly and threaten their neighbors.History demonstrates that democracy usually follows good governance, not the reverse. — Rudy Giuliani

Subordinates look for their bosses to be positive, in good humor, and cheerful. They aren't supposed to be emotional or have bad days. but leaders are guman, too, and when they are in a lousy mood and snap at a subordinate, it can have a devastating effect. — Donald T. Phillips

Never forget, organizational values start and end with you, the leader. Whether your example is good or bad, expect most employees to follow your lead. — Mac Anderson

Being A Good Leader Quotes

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed. — Nelson Mandela

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. — Aristotle

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. - Witter Bynner

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. — Witter Bynner

Bad leader quote Persist to overcome. He that can't endure the bad, will not live to see the good.
Persist to overcome. He that can't endure the bad, will not live to see the good.

Be strong, but not rude; Be kind, but not weak; Be bold, but not bully; Be humble, but not timid; Be prooud, but not arrogant. — Zig Ziglar

I am glad that the Crown have proved that I am the leader of the Half-breeds in the North-West. I will perhaps be one day acknowledged as more than a leader of the Half-breeds, and if I am I will have an opportunity of being acknowledged as a leader of good in this great country. — Louis Riel

Remember the difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, Go! A leader says, Let's go! — George E. M. Kelly

Bad leader quote Never regret a day in your life: good days give happiness, bad days give experience, worst days give
Never regret a day in your life: good days give happiness, bad days give experience, worst days give lessons, and best days give memories.

A good manager is best when people barely know that he exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him. — Lao Tzu

As a leader of people, you have to be a great listener, a great motivator, be very good at praising and bringing out the best in people. — Richard Branson

I pray to be a good servant to God, a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a brother, an uncle, a good neighbor, a good leader to those who look up to me, a good follower to those who are serving God and doing the right thing. — Mark Wahlberg

Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. — George S. Patton

Good Leader Quotes

He who neither drinks, nor smokes, nor dances, he who preaches & even occasionally practice piety, temperance and celibacy, is generally a saint, or a mahatma or more likely a humbug but he certainly won't make a leader or for that matter a good soldier — Sam Manekshaw

Good leaders must first become good servants. - Robert K. Greenleaf

Good leaders must first become good servants. — Robert K. Greenleaf

Good leaders must first become good servants. — Robert Greenleaf

Bad leader quote Be a leader by example. Be confident and humble. Love the unloved.
Be a leader by example. Be confident and humble. Love the unloved.

The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them. — John C. Maxwell

Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader. — Indra Nooyi

Hate is too great a burden to bear. - Coretta Scott King

Hate is too great a burden to bear. — Coretta Scott King

Bad leader quote There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment
There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins? The one you feed.

Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done. — Jocko Willink

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. — John Welch

I love experienced people. I love people who are phenomenally talented. I love people who've worked so hard and been so courageous and are the leaders in their fields. For me to meet somebody like that and learn from them and share words with them -to me that's magic. — Michael Jackson

He who has learned how to obey will know how to command. — Solon

Good Leadership Quotes

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. - Stevie Wonder

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. — Stevie Wonder

You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others. — Gordon B. Hinckley

Good generals select intelligent officers, thoughtful advisors, and brave subordinates. They oversee their troops like a fierce tiger with wings. — Zhuge Liang

Bad leader quote You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.
You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.

My philosophy of leadership is to surround myself with good people who have ability, judgment and knowledge, but above all, a passion for service. — Sonny Perdue

The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better. — Tony Dungy

If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees. — Ingvar Kamprad

Bad leader quote Don't let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
Don't let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.

If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory! — Mark Twain

A good example is like a bell that calls many to church. — Danish Proverbs

He that cannot obey, cannot command. — Benjamin Franklin

Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person. — Gloria Steinem

Effective Leadership Quotes

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. — Peter Drucker

Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience. — Colin Powell

The greatness of a leader is measured by the achievements of the led. This is the ultimate test of his effectiveness. — Omar N. Bradley

Bad leader quote You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren't paying attention
You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren't paying attention to.

Effective leaders help others to understand the necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome. — John P. Kotter

To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately. — Russell L. Ackoff

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'. They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they think 'team'. — Tom Peters

Bad leader quote If you love deeply, you're going to get hurt badly. But it's still worth it.
If you love deeply, you're going to get hurt badly. But it's still worth it.

In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. — Harry S. Truman

I can't give you the sunset, but I can give you the night. — Erin McCarthy

History has shown that a country most effectively speaks with one voice. When nationally elected officials work together, build consensus, and provide leadership, the American people will follow. — Chuck Hagel

Build what you want to see in the world. — Jack Dorsey

Being A Leader Quotes

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be. — Rosalynn Carter

You see things and you say, 'Why?'. But I dream things and I say, 'Why not?'. — George Bernard Shaw

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

He who finds a new path is a pathfinder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he who walks far ahead of his contemporaries is a leader, even though centuries pass before he is recognized as such. — Ibn Khaldun

If I have any merit, it is getting along with individuals, according to their ways and characteristics. At times it involves suppressing yourself. It is painful, but necessary. To be a leader you have got to lead human beings with affection. — J. R. D. Tata

Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong. — Abraham Lincoln

If you're going to be thinking anyway, think big! — Donald Trump

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. — Douglas MacArthur

Producing major change in an organization is not just about signing up one charismatic leader. You need a group - a team - to be able to drive the change. One person, even a terrific charismatic leader, is never strong enough to make all this happen. — John P. Kotter

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born. — Warren G. Bennis

Qualities Of A Leader Quotes

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. — Jim Rohn

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world. — John Updike

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening. — Jocko Willink

There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader. — Rudy Giuliani

Presenting leadership as a list of carefully defined qualities (like strategic, analytical, and performance-ori ented) no longer holds. Instead, true leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed.... Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection. — Sheryl Sandberg

The leader is one who can organize the experience of the group ... and thus get the full power of the group. The leader makes the team. This is pre-eminently the leadership quality - the ability to organize all the forces there are in an enterprise and make them serve a common purpose. — Mary Parker Follett

The quality of a leader cannot be judged by the answers he gives, but by the questions he asks. — Simon Sinek

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader. — Tacitus

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten. — John F. Kennedy

Preparedness and punctuality are two of the most important qualities of a leader. — John Andreas Widtsoe

True Leader Quotes

Freedom, by definition, is people realizing that they are their own leaders. — Diane Nash

The true leader is a different sort; he seeks effective activity which has a truly beneficient purpose. He inspires others to follow in his wake, and holding aloft the torch of wisdom, leads the way for society to realize its genuinely great aspirations. — Haile Selassie

Woe to the people that fails to honor its heroes! It will cease producing them, cease knowing them. Heroes spring from the essence of their people. A people without heroes is a people without leaders, for only a heroic leader is a true leader able to withstand the challenge of difficult times. — Rudolf Hess

A leader has to be one of two things: he either has to be a brilliant visionary himself, a truly creative strategist, in which case he can do what he likes and get away with it; or else he has to be a true empowerer who can bring out the best in others. — Henry Mintzberg

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. — Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is standing with your people. People say you have to live to fight another day, but sometimes you have to show you are a true leader. — Leymah Gbowee

If in the darkness of ignorance, you don’t recognize a person’s true nature, look to see whom he has chosen for his leader. — Rumi

True leadership is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you. — J. Oswald Sanders

You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington. — Grace Hopper

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. — Colin Powell

Bad Management Quotes

And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. — Haruki Murakami

Grades don't measure anything other than your relevant obedience to a manager. — John Taylor Gatto

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. — Solomon

I do not feel inhibited or bound by what I am. That does not mean that I have never had bad scenes relating to being Black and/or a woman, it means that other people’s craziness has not managed to make me crazy. — Lucille Clifton

Only liars manage to always be out during bad times and in during good times. — Bernard Baruch

To see the line between being good and bad is really thin. It’s not easy for anyone, not the manager, the players or the staff. — Mikel Arteta

Not managing your time and making excuses are two bad habits. Don't put them both together by claiming you "don't have the time". — Bo Bennett

You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it's going to be bad. — James Mattis

If the management has not performed well in their bad times in the past, chances are they will not perform well in their good times in the future too. — Vijay Kedia

The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past. — Sylvia Plath

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More Bad Leader Quotes

We [Israel people] always blame Moses, that he was our greatest leader and one of the most gifted people in the world. He brought us the moral code and so on, belief in one God, but then he was a bad navigator. He brought us to the only part of the Middle East without any gas, without any oil. — Benjamin Netanyahu

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team. — John C. Maxwell

Nothing will undermine your effectiveness as a leader faster than a bad marriage. — Michael Hyatt

The Muslim leaders swallow the advice of the Western powers and bodies like the IMF and World Bank, even when it is bad for their countries and they know this. — Abu Bakar Bashir

A strong leader is not necessarily a bad leader. — Paul Kagame

Bosses and leaders everywhere should cherish the people who bring them bad news, disappointing data or hard problems. — Margaret Heffernan

The leader is always alone before bad fates. — Charles De Gaulle

Our world is very dishonest, and our leaders encourage dishonesty by setting bad examples - by lying, being corrupt, and using political sleight of hand to sustain power. — Stuart Wilde

Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. — Rocky Anderson

If an alien lands on your front lawn and extends an appendage as a gesture of greeting, before you get friendly, toss it an eightball. If the appendage explodes, then the alien was probably made of antimatter. If not, then you can proceed to take it to your leader. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

The most effective leaders of companies in transition are the quiet, unassuming people whose inner wiring is such that the worst circumstances bring out their best. They're unflappable, they're ready to die if they have to. But you can trust that, when bad things are happening, they will become clearheaded and focused. — James C. Collins

After your first job, is anyone asking you what your GPA was? No, they don't care. They ask you: Are you a good leader? Do people follow you? Do you have integrity? Are you innovative? Do you solve problems? Somebody's got to do that homework and redesign the educational system so that it can actually train people to be successful in life. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation's leaders wouldn't know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return. — Lewis H. Lapham

On the business side, innovative leaders are beginning to wake up to the fact that this non-stop work trend is bad for business: Google Ireland tested a program called Dublin Goes Dark, where employees turned over their phones at the end of each work day. It seems like a sea change is ahead. — Katrina Onstad

No party is as bad as its leaders. — Will Rogers

I don't know whether any religious leader would say that we must ultimately win, because we're on God's side. If they do say that, it's bad religion. — Reinhold Niebuhr

Conflicts often stem from a couple of leaders on both sides that are badly brought up. They'd rather go to war than compromise. And in business, you're competing with other companies all the time, but you don't end up going to war with each other. — Richard Branson

Tear gas, rubber bullets, and I would have arrested all the leaders. Oh, only a disgusting drunkard like ex-President Yahya Khan could have sullied himself with an operation carried out so badly and bloodily. — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

There is this sense of David Cameron leading a Government that's badly out of touch with ordinary people's lives. I'd absolutely welcome the opportunity to show all political leaders what life is like for most people. — Frances O'Grady

Leaders trust their guts. Intuition is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a soft notion. Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It's an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition. — Tom Peters

Our politicians are stupid. And the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning. And they send the bad ones over because they don't want to pay for them. They don't want to take care of them. Why should they when the stupid leaders of the United States will do it for them? — Donald Trump

Bad leaders believe that they have to project control at all times. — Simon Sinek

One of the problems many leaders report is a gap between strategy and execution. Usually this "gap" arises because the so-called "strategy" is a set of financial performance goals, not an approach to overcoming challenges. The two key ways to narrow this gap are to avoid bad strategies that fail to explain how to proceed and to establish a proximate objective - something which can be accomplished and which will open the door to further progress. — Richard P. Rumelt

That's what world leadership is: A willingness to point at bad guys and say they're the bad guys and to keep the bad guys from getting worse! That's leadership. Obama didn't want to go there. — Rush Limbaugh

When people look at the ratings and they're bad, I think people can get an idea of "Why would they even make the show?" And to a certain extent, original programming for any network is a loss leader to try to get you to keep the channel on your cable package. — Scott Aukerman

As we move forward, I am looking for a new leader of the Chicago Police Department to address the problems at the very heart of the policing profession. The problem is sometimes referred to as "the thin blue line." The problem is other times referred to as "the code of silence." It is this tendency to ignore. It is the tendency to deny. It is the tendency, in some cases, to cover up the bad actions of a colleague or colleagues. — Rahm Emanuel

The biggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy, we have Mosul. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul. So we have announcements coming out of Washington and coming out of Iraq, we will be attacking Mosul in three weeks or four weeks. Well, all of these bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Why can't they do it quietly? — Donald Trump

Dogs seek attention from you. But by paying them that attention when they want it, you're reinforcing the bad or hyperactive or anxious behavior that you're trying to avoid. Practice - no touch, no talk, no eye contact - and see how you fare. You might be surprised at how quickly the dog settles down and looks to you as his pack leader for direction. — Cesar Millan

We need to learn from history. These same leaders - [Barack] Obama, [Hillary] Clinton, and far too many Republicans - want to topple [Bashar] Assad. Assad is a bad man. Gadhafi was a bad man. Mubarak had a terrible human rights record. But they were assisting us - at least [Muammar] Gadhafi and [Hosni] Mubarak - in fighting radical Islamic terrorists. — Ted Cruz

I am a leader in the fight against the national energy tax proposal some Congressional leaders are advocating. I call this bad idea 'cap-and-tax' because of the damage it will do to jobs, manufacturing and our economy. — Jim Sensenbrenner

We can influence people for bad or good. — Johnny Hunt

When the sun sets, life gets darker in the country; when a bad leader sinks, life gets brighter in the country! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Bad leaders care about who is right. Good leaders care about what is right — Simon Sinek

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