Thoughts on leadership

British statesman

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a moulder of consensus.

—Martin Luther King, Jr

American activist

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

—Warren Bennis

American scholar

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

Indian-American business executive

He who has never learnt to obey cannot be a good commander.

—Aristotle

Greek philosopher

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

Chinese philosopher

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock

the boat.

—Jean-Paul Sartre

French novelist

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

American novelist

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

—Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom fighter

Some people feel, you make your case, if they listen to you, fine, if they don’t, that’s it. That’s not what leadership is. Leadership is trying to continue to make a case.

—Anthony Fauci

American immunologist