It’s one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he’s leading to realize whatever he’s dreaming. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said, ‘I have a dream. Of course, I’m not sure they’ll be up to it.

The major difference between the 'best' and the 'average' is that the 'best' get as much pleasure from practice as performance.

The job of the leader is to speak to the possibility.

The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.

Life is revealed as a place to contribute and we as contributors. Not because we have done a measurable amount of good, but because that is the story we tell.

I have a definition of success. For me it's very simple. It's not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me.

As leaders, we're giving out grades in every encounter we have with people. We can choose to give out grades as an expectation to live up to, and then we can reassess them according to performance. Or we can offer grades as a possibility to live into. The second approach is much more powerful.