You are not a leader to win a popularity contest-you are a leader to lead.

The idea of let's all share the pain equally, or let's freeze salaries altogether - it's ass-backwards. It's absolutely ass-backwards.

Some think that it is cruel or brutal to remove the bottom 10 percent of our people. It isn't. It's just the opposite. What I think is brutal and "false kindness" is keeping people around who aren't going to grow and prosper. There's no cruelty like waiting and telling people late into their careers that they don't belong - just when the options are limited and they're putting their children through college or paying off big mortgages.

No one is doing something in your business - getting a sale, having a key customer, working on an R&D project - doing anything that's more important than something you say is going to change the company.

If you're not in Germany, you're not in Europe. And if you're not in Asia, you're nowhere.

The team with the best players usually does win - this is why you need to invest the majority of your time and energy in developing your people.

Every great leader has a generosity gene.