Throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.

I am not failing - I am growing! Do you have the ability to reframe failure as growth in order to achieve your goals?

For no matter what we achieve, if we don't spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life. But if we spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect - people we really enjoy being on the bus with and who will never disappoint us - then we will almost certainly have a great life, no matter where the bus goes. The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.

Creative leadership impact increases in your 50's. When I turn 50 I want to say, "Nice start!"

Look, I don't really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great.

The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.

Good is the enemy of great. And that's one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.