Stretch targets energize. We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don't quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.

Not surprisingly, work-life moaners tend to be a phenomenon of below-average performers.

If you managed a baseball team, would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel?

The most important quality of leadership is intellectual honesty. The reality principle - the ability to see the world as it really is, not as you wish it were.

In any bad situation you can not let yourself be a victim.

Strategy is not a lengthy action plan. It is the evolution of a central idea through continually changing circumstances.

Celebrating creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Imagine a team winning the World Series without champagne spraying everywhere. And yet companies win all the time and let it go without so much as a high five. Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Make a big deal out of them. If you don't, no one will.