"The Christian who is ambitious to be a star disqualifies himself as a leader." - David Watson

"A leader is a person with a magnet in his heart and a compass in his head." - Vance Havner

"The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there." - Henri Nouwen in The Wounded Healer

"As a leader, you provide for people only what they can't provide for themselves."

"Awkwardness is natural. If people aren't feeling awkward doing something new, they're not doing something new."

"Do not punish a learner. If you do, you'll immobilize him."

"In change, people feel alone, even if everyone is going through it."

"The biggest addiction we have to overcome is to the human ego. Why? Because ego stands for 'Edging God Out.'"

"Everyday, do something in relation to everything that is important to you."

"Change agents aren't loved, so you'd better get centered that you are loved (by God), that you're fabulous." - Willow Creek Leadership Summit (8/95)

"Leadership is character and competence - if you have to be lacking in one, let it be competence, because you can't be a leader without character." - General Norman Schwarzkopf

"And all the time such is the tragic comedy of our situation - we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect virtue or enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the gelding be fruitful." - C. S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man

"When I bear the major load of responsibility, I am going to be in the middle of it." - John Maxwell

"Leadership is accepting people where they are, then taking them somewhere." - C. W. Perry

"Consensus is a poor substitute for leadership." - Charlotte Beers, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather worldwide ad agency

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality." - Max Depree in Leadership Is an Art

"The nation had the lion's heart. I had the luck to give the roar." - Winston Churchill

"Two army rules: 'When placed in command - take charge. Do what's right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good. There is no such thing as a born leader…most great leaders are ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances." - Norman Schwarzkopf

"According to George Barna, only 6% of pastors say they have the gift of leadership. If other terms like 'shepherding, pasturing, and administration' are included the figure rises to 30%. Yet of these pastors only 2 out of 100 could articulate their church's vision. Barna does not assert that the other 98% can't articulate such a vision, but that up to this point they haven't." - Leadership, Summer 1995

"The church's successes of yesterday are killing us today. In times of great success, leaders feel little need to be reflective. Rather, the impetus is to go, go, go. But to go, go, go when the congregation is headed in the wrong direction will only get it there faster." - Norman Shawchuck and Roger Heuser in Leading the Congregation (quoted in Circuit Rider, May 1993)

Leadership