In the dynamic world of leadership, guidance and inspiration can often be found in the words of those who have walked the path before us. Whether you're stepping into a new leadership role or seeking to refine your skills, powerful quotes can offer valuable insights and motivation. This carefully curated collection of 49 inspiring leadership training quotes is designed to spark your imagination and fuel your journey toward becoming a more impactful leader. Let these words of wisdom from renowned leaders, thinkers, and visionaries serve as your compass, helping you navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with leading others.
1. “A manager’s emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual & physical commitment combined.” - Stan Slap
2. “Emotional commitment means unchecked, unvarnished devotion to the company and its success; any legendary organizational performance is the result of emotionally committed managers.” - Stan Slap
3. “What companies want most from their managers is what they most stop their managers from giving. What managers want most from their jobs is what they most stop themselves from getting.” - Stan Slap
4. “Providing the ultimate solution to work/life balance: not escaping from work but living the way you want to at work.” - Stan Slap
5. “Profitability. Growth. Quality. Exceeding customer expectations. These are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.” - Stan Slap
6. “A company can’t buy true emotional commitment from managers no matter how much it’s willing to spend; this is something too valuable to have a price tag. And yet a company can’t afford not to have it.” - Stan Slap
7. “The company may have captured their minds, their bodies and their pockets, but that doesn’t mean it’s captured their hearts.” - Stan Slap
8. “Try not to take this the wrong way, but your brain is smarter than you are.” - Stan Slap
9. “Your dreams and the dreams of your company may be different, but they are in no way incompatible.” - Stan Slap
10. “The purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully.” - Stan Slap
11. “Human behavior is only unpredictable and dangerous if you don’t start from humanity in the first place.” - Stan Slap
12. “Your company really has to work for you before you’ll really work for your company.” - Stan Slap
13. “What first separates a leader from a normal human being? A leader knows who they are as a human being.” - Stan Slap
14. “Imagine a world where what you say synchs up, not sinks down.” - Stan Slap
15. “The myth of management is that your personal values are irrelevant or inappropriate at work.” - Stan Slap
16. “When you’re a manager, you work for your company. When you’re a leader, your company works for you.” - Stan Slap
17. “Here’s what you need to know most about leadership: Lead your own life first. The only thing in this world that will dependably happen from the top down is the digging of your grave.” - Stan Slap
18. “Instead of waiting for a leader you can believe in, try this: Become a leader you can believe in.” - Stan Slap
19. “You can stuff yourself with emotional fulfillment until it’s dribbling down your chin & your ego will quickly chomp it down and demand more.” - Stan Slap
20. “The economy is in ruins! Bottom line? Good management will defeat a bad economy.” - Stan Slap
21. “You can’t sell it outside if you can’t sell it inside.” - Stan Slap
22. “Your company is its own competition and can deliver itself debilitating blows the competition only dreams of.” - Stan Slap
23. “The first step to solving any problem is to accept one’s own accountability for creating it.” - Stan Slap
24. “Being relevant to your customers only when you’re trying to sell something means choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time.” - Stan Slap
25. “You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human. You want it. People don't trust companies; they trust people.” - Stan Slap
26. “Leadership reveals itself in the big moments, but is forged in the small. It is the exponential and compounding product of our many incremental behaviors and actions; all of which arise out of our choices in values, beliefs & emotions. Choices all. Not a one is thrust upon us.” - Christopher Babson
27. “The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up. What do you really want from your company?” - Stan Slap
28. “Success means: I want to know the work I do means something to somebody and helps make the world, if not a Better place, not a worse one.” - Stan Slap
29. “Success for Managers means: I want to be in healthy relationships. I want a real connection with people I spend so much time with.” - Stan Slap
30. “Let’s get right on top of the bottom line: You must live your personal values at work.” - Stan Slap
31. “Hard-core results come from igniting the massive power of emotional commitment. Are your people committed?” - Stan Slap
32. “Do you think your people struggle with being true to themselves? Do their values match up with their work?” - Stan Slap
33. “The heart of a company’s performance is hardwired to the hearts of its managers.” - Stan Slap
34. “The high quality of a company’s customer experience rarely has anything to do with the high price of their product.” - Stan Slap
35. “Careful now: even a financially rewarding, intellectually stimulating work environment isn’t the same as living your own values.” - Stan Slap
36. “To integrate one’s experiences around a coherent and enduring sense of self lies at the core of creating a user’s guide to life.” - Stan Slap
37. “Management controls performance in people because it impacts skills; it’s a matter of monitoring, analyzing and directing.” - Stan Slap
38. “Leadership creates performance in people because it impacts willingness; it’s a matter of modeling, inspiring, and reinforcing.” - Stan Slap
39. “Leaders are people who know exactly who they are. They know exactly where they want to go. They’re hell-bent on getting there.” - Stan Slap
40. “Leaders make a lot of mistakes but they admit those mistakes to themselves and change because of them.” - Stan Slap
41. “Companies should be the best possible place to practice fulfillment, to live out values and to realize deep connectivity and purpose.” - Stan Slap
42. “Values are deeply held personal beliefs that form your own priority code for living.” - Stan Slap
43. “Most managers have plenty of emotional commitment to give to their jobs. If they can be convinced it’s safe and sensible to give it.” - Stan Slap
44. “Emotional commitment is a personal choice. Managers understand this even if their companies don’t.” - Stan Slap
45. “A manager’s emotional commitment is worth more than their financial, intellectual and physical commitment combined.” - Stan Slap
46. “Work/life balance is not about escaping work. It’s about living exactly the way you want to when you’re at work.” - Stan Slap
47. “This is your one and only precious life. Somebody’s going to decide how it’s going to be lived and that person had better be you.” - Stan Slap
48. “What managers want most from companies they stop themselves from getting.What companies want most from managers they stop them from giving.” - Stan Slap
49. “It’s impossible for a company to get what it wants most if managers have to make a choice between their own values and company priorities.” - Stan Slap
