My job [is] to awaken possibility in other people. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If they're not shining you get to ask this question: "Who am I being that my children's eyes are not shining?"

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

It's not a question of how much power you can hoard for yourself, but how much you can give away.

Imagine Martin Luther King saying, 'I have a dream ... But I don't know if the others will buy it.'

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

Look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it.

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.