Leadership Poems | Encore Collection

More leadership poems are presented here in response to the positive feedback received by readers who enjoyed our first collection of poems on leadership.

The written word, and poetry specifically, can be a powerful force to confront issues and manifest change in the world.

We hope you enjoy this encore collection of leadership poems.

People all over the globe live each day confronted with violence, bigotry, scarcity of jobs or a livable wage, lack of housing or health care. The poet can play an important role in helping people to overcome the challenges and burdens of everyday life conditions.

It’s been said that the power of the poem empowers the poet to effectively transform an individual and an entire community. The role of the poet is to turn despair into hope.

The written word can change people in an instant. Poems can connect us to ourselves and open our eyes to new beginnings, brighter days ahead, and renew our motivation to push forward.

The talented poets of yesterday and today work to perfect the role of being outstanding listeners. They read each side of an issue and provide an insightful message that causes the reader to pause and more deeply consider the meaning of the words.

"The poet can lift up and comfort those by sharing their struggles, hopes and aspirations with the world."

As a leader, you are and will continue to be confronted daily by adversaries, setbacks, barriers, and hurdles that get in the way of progress. Somewhere along the way, you will be required to make decisions on behalf of your team and the organization. When you time to speak arrives, you'll want to do so in a thoughtful and effective way.

Great leaders understand the power that their words can have on others. They use language to bring about positive solutions that support a healthy work environment and enhance the overall results of the team.

These leaders make every effort to utilize language effectively, and in a way that best models the behaviors they seek to inspire in others. Great leaders take time to be thankful, gracious, and humble.

"The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good."

- Ann Landers

Encore Collection of Leadership Poems

The following are an additional collection of leadership poems that offer insightful lessons on life and the art of leadership.

Key messages are provided on each poem for your consideration. We encourage you to think about the meaning of each poem and how its message can be used to help others.

Words can be powerful tools that leaders can leverage to motivate and inspire team members for improved performance.

Leadership Poems Message: A resolute will can overcome great odds.

Will Power

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gift counts for little; Will alone is great
All things give way before it, soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves,
Let the fool prate of Luck! The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim.
Why, even death stands still
And waits, an hour, sometimes, for such a Will!

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Leadership Poems Message: Be thankful and appreciate your many blessings.

Gratitude

The sun was shining in my eyes, and I could barely see
To do the necessary task that was allotted me.
Resentment of the vivid glow, I started to complain -
When all at once upon the air I heard the blind man's cane.

- Earl Musselman

Leadership Poems Message: Making your best effort is a success habit.

Making The Grade

If I were a cobbler, it would be my pride
The best of all cobblers to be;
If I were a tinker, no tinker beside
Should mend an old kettle like me.

- Unknown

Leadership Message: Holding a firm resolve for what is right serves you well.

Voices Of The Night

The star of the unconquered will
He rises in my breast
Serense, and resolute and still
And calm and self-possessed.

- Longfellow

Leadership Message: Work hard, do things once and do them right.

Make Your Chance

The nerve that never relaxes,
The eye that never blanches,
The thought that never wanders,
These are the masters of Victory.

- Edmund Burke

Leadership Poems Message: Fight to protect freedom or be prepared to lose it.

Faust

Yes, to this thought I hold with firm persistence;
the last result of wisdom stamps it true;
He only earns his freedom and existence
Who daily conquers them anew.

- Goethe

Leadership Poems Message: Staying true to high ideals will build character.

Building Of Character

Life is an arrow – therefore you must know
What mark to aim at, how to use the bow – Then draw it to the head and Let It Go!

- Henry Van Dyke

Leadership Poems Message: Self-discipline and mastery of self wins the day.

A Soldier's Epitaph

Here lies a soldier whom all must applaud, Who fought many battles at home and abroad; But the hottest engagement he ever was in, Was the conquest of self, in the battle of sin.

- Unknown

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

Leadership Poems Message: Opportunity is everywhere, it's all around you now.

Opportunities Abound

To each man’s life there comes a time supreme;
One day, one night, one morning, or one noon,
One freighted hour, one moment opportune,
One rift through which sublime fulfillments gleam,
One space when fate goes tiding with the stream,
One Once, in balance twixt Too Late, Too Soon,
And ready for the passing instant’s boon
To tip in favor the uncertain beam.
Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait,
Knows also how to watch and work and stand
On Life’s broad deck alert, and at the prow
To seize the passing moment, big with fate,
From opportunity’s extended hand,
When the great clock of destiny strikes Now!

- Mary A. Townsend

Leadership Poems Message: Never give up, keep pushing forward.

Press On!

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan "press on" has solved
and always will solve
the problems of the human race.

- President Calvin Coolidge

Leadership Poems Message: Steer your thinking positively to prevent a wreck.

Thought Building

We build our future, thought by thought,
Or good or bad, and know it not –
Yet so the universe is wrought.
Thought is another name for fate,
Choose, then, thy destiny, and wait –
For love brings love, and hate brings hate.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Leadership Message: Stay true to yourself and do good for others.

My Time

I am not fighting my fight,
I am singing my song.

- Archie L. Black

Leadership Message: Each day brings a new opportunity to serve and do better.

New Beginning

Another fresh new year is here.
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest.
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

- William Arthur Ward

Leadership Message: Staying true to high ideals will build character.

The Smile

Smile once in a while,
It will make your heart seem lighter.
Life’s a mirror; If we smile,
Smiles come back to greet us;
If we’re frowning all the while, frowns forever meet us.

- Nixon Waterman

Leadership Poems Message: A single event can be the agent of change you seek.

Something Touched Him

The most valuable thing which ever comes into a life Is that experience, that book, that sermon, that person, That incident, that emergency, that accident, That catastrophe – that something which touches the springs Of a man’s inner nature and flings open the doors Of his great within, Revealing its hidden resources.

- O.S. Marden

Leadership Poems Message: Look to the sun to avoid the shadows of doubt and fear.

The Optimist's Creed

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Promise yourself these things.

- Christian Larson

Final Comments

Thanks for your interest in our Encore Leadership Poems Collection - we hope you've enjoyed the selections we've chosen and we encourage you to utilize leadership poems as tools to inspire continued growth and development.