By Roberta Attanasio, STEMM Leadership Editor
We’re surrounded by leaders, and we’re surrounded by leadership books. Leaders inspire others, and a few leaders (or too many of them?) write books. There are thousands of leadership books with rich content from which readers distill inspirational quotes. What are the most popular of these quotes? Someone was kind, smart and resourceful enough to make a list of them—to be precise, a list of 50 quotes. How? By purchasing the 50 best rated leadership books and using the ‘most highlighted’ feature in Amazon’s Kindle.
Out of the 50 most popular quotes, here are my favorite ones.
- “There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it” — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
- “The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life” — Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
- “Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be” — Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
- “A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you would like to be happening” — The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
- “You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of what you already are” — Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
- “Research shows that the best way to deal with negativity is to observe it, without reaction and without judgment” — Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz
- “Leadership is about creating change that you believe in” — Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
- “I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding potential in people and processes” — Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brené Brown
- “No matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside” — Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
- “The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don’t have any” — Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
Which one is your favorite quote? Why?
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My favorite quote from the list is “You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of what you already are” The reason this is impactful to me is because i tend to look at others and see what they are doing and how i am not doing what they are doing. I also consider some career path that i want to take but i know it not worth the journey for me. All these can tend to weigh me down but when i realize that i can be more than whatever i am now, it motivates me to try and give in more of my time to self development instead of wishing to be something i cannot be. In pursuing a career it is best to go with what give me joy instead of what brings the most money. This quote help me realize the value of doing more with myself instead of worry about other things.
“The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don’t have any” — Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
This quote stood out to me because it is not something common that you hear. This is my first time ever seeing this statement, and I have never realized how true it was. You really only ever hearing of people losing their power because they got too carried away and/or did not stay humble. These people typically abuse their power, so they are “dethroned” for this reason. It is rare that you hear someone losing their power because they don’t think that they have any. This may come from lack of confidence. They don’t believe in themselves, so their ability to lead with the power that they have is basically nonexistent.
Another quote that I was drawn to was:
“Leadership is about creating change that you believe in” — Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
I loved this quote because I think that it is so true and relatable to many people. Everyone wants to see a change, rather it be on a global or even local level, but not many people are willing to put themselves forward to actually provide a change. People are often afraid of what other may think of them and what they stand on. Some people are nervous that they won’t obtain the amount of followers that they set for themself. Majority of great leaders probably had these same fears, but they overcame them because their want for change outweighed their fears.
My favorite quote from this article was:
Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be” — Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
I think this quote is exceptionally true today, because so many people put on a facade of the life that they want everyone to think that they are living, instead of actually enjoying the life that they do have freely. Social media has become a huge influence in today’s society. Sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. This quote made me automatically relate it to social media because a lot of people who post a glamorous life aren’t actually happy, and this comes as a shocker to most people. The big time social media people post what they think other’s want them to be or whatever draws the largest fan base, compared to who they actually are as people.
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it” — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
This quote speaks volumes for a humanly and laboratory existence. As young scientists in the laboratory, we initially take everything upon ourselves and the wishes of being successful on our own…but it is important to accept the help of veteran lab members to be successful, especially if they are willing to share past experiences. Those veteran lab members are choosing to inspire human behavior, particularly in science, rather than manipulate it. Those who manipulate you must first identify. Once you identify the manipulation, you are aware of it. Thus once you are aware of manipulation at hand, given it justifiable, you are able to hand it accordingly. You will undoubtedly be challenged by egos via manipulation. You should identify them as such, and choose to stand and follow the leadership of inspiration.
I find this quote, “The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life” by Carol S. Dweck, interesting because it shows the importance of having a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. Your views of yourself affect how you will live your life, so it is important to change your views as you get more experiences because having a fixed view would let you succeed for a shorter time. Also, you do not have to believe in having fixed qualities because belief in having fixed abilities do not let you prove yourself. Therefore, you should be able to change your mindset as well as your views of yourself or adopt your views as you get more experiences and as you learn more, to be able to adapt yourself to different situations and be successful for a longer time. It can be concluded that having a growth mindset is essential because by being able to change your views, you can improve your skills, personality, and abilities. Through practicing a growth mindset, you can understand that your basic qualities can grow through experience and application. By having a fixed mindset, you would divide the world into weak and strong, but by having a growth mindset, you would divide the world into non-learners and learners. Also, having a fixed mindset does not allow you to learn from your failures and become a better person, but with a growth mindset, you will learn from your mistakes and acn improve yourself. You walk through a path that is made up of your views and you are influenced by those views. So, you have to practice for having a good view of yourself, which allows you to like what you do and live better.
Sara, I believe your evaluation of growth and fixed mindsets is very accurate. As we grow through life experiences, hopefully gaining wisdom along the way, the mindset we have regarding our future and our hopes must also evolve. It is as if your mindset helps you to get to certain milestones, but in order to continue to more rewarding opportunities your mindset must build off of each milestone in order to achieve the next. It is relaxing to know that if you put your best effort into anything in your life, regardless of success or failure, you learn from either and grow as an individual. When you identify more with a growth mindset, you can reflect that on others as well to help them learn and grow as individuals as well.
“You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of what you already are” — Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
I like this quote the most because it is realistic. I feel as though that people have the potential to do a lot of things with their lives but to say that you can be “anything” is a lie. At the end of the day, can I be a true mermaid? Sadly, no. Now for a more reasonable approach: Can I be rich and famous? That could most likely not happen because fame requires external forces that are out of my control. I believe that people can be anything in life that is best suited towards themselves. Some roles in life, such as leadership, are pre-ordained for some people. I don’t believe that everyone has the capability to be a leader. At the end of the day, there are a large number of things someone can be destined to do. Destiny is not something that can be controlled so no matter how much you may want something, sometimes it just won’t align with the person that you are. However, you can have control over some aspects of your life and do your best to succeed at the things that you believe can be attained.
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it” — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
I think this is a very profound statement. I think we subconsciously approach everyone we meet in this way to some degree. Almost like sizing up a person…..can I help them or can they help me. It plays to the way you should consider who should be in your life. And what role they serve in your life.
I feel like this is even the pseudo identity with our government, where if you are liberal you are led to believe the republicans are meant to manipulate and the democrats are made to inspire. But if you are conservative you would think the opposite.
“A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you would like to be happening” — The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.
I like this quote a lot. When I reflect back to moments where an issue arose, I realize they were only issues because I didn’t like the current situation. This quote also has quite the range of application. For example, the pandemic is only an issue for us because of how easy it is to contract it and because of how dangerous the symptoms could be. If COVID-19 wasn’t as deadly or out of control (at least in the states) as it is now, then I doubt that CDC guidlines would be as heavily stressed as they are now.
I think it’s also important to keep this quote in mind when it comes to being a leader. The way I see it, as a leader it is especially important to seperate choices for yourself versus choices for the people you lead. Ultimately, your responsibility is to those you lead. If anything, this quote is a way to keep things in perspective. A leader’s choices have a huge range when it comes to the people that their decisions could affect. When you make a decision to try to resolve the problem, I think you should first consider, is there an issue because it’s different from what I want, or is it because it’s different from what the people want?
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it, or you can inspire it”
This quote depicts the current events happening around us. It explains how leaders use their power to manipulate people or inspire them. This quote correlates a lot with the coronavirus pandemic. We can observe that leaders worldwide have managed to tackle the virus with a different plan of action. On one side, we see leaders using the situation to their benefit to get the people’s vote or ignore the situation’s perplexity by downplaying it in front of people. On the other side, we see responsible leaders desperately encouraging people to take appropriate precautions and stop the coronavirus spread. This quote thoroughly explains the behavior of leaders of different countries in the world today. Only the leaders that are willing to stand beside their people in any difficulty are the ones willing to inspire them to do better.
“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life” — Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck.
This quote resonated really deeply with me. Often times I feel as though people take other people’s evaluations, criticisms, or view points so personally. The thing is that you know yourself best, so why would would you take a comment from someone who barely knows you so deeply. It all has to do with your own view and feelings on yourself. How you feel about yourself sets the tone for every day. If you believe you can’t do something, you probably won’t. That could be for big things and small things. Your relationship and view of yourself is so important because you can’t walk away from yourself. You can walk away from someone else who upsets or disappoints you, but you can’t with yourself. You have to forgive yourself for every wrong turn and move forward. We should all view ourselves as a work in progress, but fully capable to achieve all we want to.
My favorite quote is “Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be” — Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes. I am always looking out to find happiness in my life and there have been times when I live my life on what other people tell me to do. When you follow your own dreams and passions is when you find happiness and become content in life. This quote resonated with me because I am on a journey to find out who I actually am.
It is indeed a great quote describing a person’s journey towards self-discovery. We often forget that we should be we truly are meant to be, not what others want us to be.
“Leadership is about creating change that you believe in” — Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
“I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding potential in people and processes” — Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brené Brown
As someone who has had some experience in basic leadership, and aspiring to lead, these two coats drive and define most leaders. True leaders envisage creating a better future haven’t identified deficiencies in the society or place of leadership. Daring to say that “this is not right” and forecasting as well as getting people to share and believe flames desire. The other thing a leader must do is to discern as to the people who will be able to augment and co-direct the process of the change. The balance of these two creates inclusion and purpose. When the whole team understands the purpose, the momentum is unstoppable.
I find this quote, “You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of what you already are” by Tom Rath very interesting because it surprised me. My mom has always told me that I could be anything I wanted to be and I don’t think my mom is the only parent to say that. I don’t think there is anything wrong with telling children that they can be anything they want to be but this quote represents a more realistic and adult version of what my mom used to say. To me the quote means that after your character is formed and you have an idea about your strengths and weaknesses, you should use that knowledge and continue to build yourself into a better version of yourself.
I agree with the fact that this is more realistic. Focusing on an area that you know that you’re good at will be much more efficient than trying to do something you struggle with But more often times than not, most people want to focus on something that they believe they’re good at. However, no matter how good a person may be, if it’s not meant for that person then it will never happen for them.
This is one of my favorite quote: “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” by John C. Maxwell. I love this quote because we live in a generation where most people think about just themselves and not others well-being. I believe that being a leader is doing good for others helping them succeed. I believe scientist identity is someone who develops a vision which became their belief and personality and shares the idea with others which becomes their vision. I believe a great scientist is setting up as an example to others. Be great and do great!
“Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be” by Shonda Rhimes is my favorite quote listed above. I feel like this quote is very dear to me because I say it often. For me, this applied to figuring out which career I wanted to ultimately do. I was studying something that did not make me happy, but made others proud and happy. We have one life to live, one chance to get it right. We cannot live our lives making others happy, they have their own lives for that. Genuine happiness is within yourself.
“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life” — Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
This is something I personally believe in. In a fixed mindset, a single setback can deter a person from achieving success. They end up believing that they are a failure, however, in a growth mindset, that one setback is seen as a challenge rather than a defeat. How you live your life defines your future. It determines the person you will become and with what mindset you will lead your life.
I agree. A fixed mindset can cause you to be very stagnant and you will never see growth most times. I agree, setbacks definitely do not equate to defeats and I believe that that is a mindset everyone should at least try to adopt.
My favorite quote from the list is “The most common way people give up power is by thinking they don’t have any” — Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.
I cannot iterate this enough. Many easily give up at the beginning, believing that they are powerless. We all can have power; our mindsets just lead to us unknowingly giving up our power. Imagine a scenario where your team is struggling with an issue, and even the leader couldn’t figure it out. You, as a team member, thought of a possible solution, but since you were not the leader and not confident in your idea, you decided not to speak up. Unknowingly, you gave up power to fix the situation by not speaking up. Even though you are not the leader, it doesn’t mean you are powerless. Everybody has the power to do something, to make a change. The only time you are powerless is when you actually give up the power. And to me, that is so so important to consider when leading or collaborating in science. None of us are powerless!
The points that you discussed, even your example, are things that I actually think about often. I feel like the world has a view that roles in leadership are limited and unobtainable. Instead, they idolize people who are in leadership and wait for them to use their voices to create changes and advocate for them. While not everyone wants to be a voice or a leader, they should feel like they are capable to do so if desired. We all hold so much divine power within ourselves, we all just have to find it and use it for the better.
I completely agree with you Cindy V. I have always struggled with speaking up at the right time and despite knowing so much about a topic, I tend to back off during a group activity. This isn’t just about being a leader or not being a leader, but having the guts to speak your mind. Power comes with courage, and the only way you can be courageous is to face the problem head on.
This is so true Cindy! I have seen this throughout my life especially in my last job. I also find that managers sometimes can be dismissive when you come up with a creative solution and then people back down due to lack of confidence instead of politely defending their idea or thought. I have actually done backed down before due to lack of confidence and I have to admit I felt a bit downtrodden. This dismissiveness by a leader and lack of confidence can have a big impact on the morale of the team as well! I think when someone does have the confidence to speak up it motivates others on the team. So it is important to remember this quote. Thanks for sharing and reminding me how important it is to remember this quote!
“Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be” — Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
This quote by Shonda Rhimes is my favorite in the list. This quote honestly hits home and I can really relate to it. Growing up in a Nigerian household and being a woman, I’ve been told to aspire to do or be certain things, that I never had interest in. Because I was regularly told I only had one particular path, I began to believe that it was the only correct path available. Eventually, I decided to take control over my life, and it was through this, that I experienced true bliss.
This is also my favorite quote in the list. I also have been told to become certain person throughout my life. It made me lost and confused about who I really was as a person. It took me a while to find things that I had an interest, and I am still looking for myself to this day. I really enjoyed reading your comment.
“Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be” — Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
I find the quote by Shonda Rhimes to be very befitting, as it is the best representation of myself. I’ve always wanted to be someone perfect, perfect in everything they do. But it is impossible because no human is perfect. I’m constantly working hard to meet everyone’s expectations. Instead of changing myself to someone’s expectations, I should develop myself to be a better person. I feel that I’ll be more successful and more content being the person I really am. I do not have to look down on myself anymore, and I can accept myself as an imperfect but happy human being.
Great post Quyen, I feared the concept of “failing”. You are absolutely right, no human is perfect. Every time I failed, I always looked down on my self and start comparing myself to others and this made me look like I am never good in what I do. But, I recently have accepted that failing is just a process of learning. Since then every step was just a learning process.