The only failure is the failure to learn from conscious and deliberate efforts to make things better, even if those attempts fall short of the mark.

Firms that fully embrace the needs and interests of the whole person will win today's competition for the best talent.

My view is that leadership is not about position - you can lead very well with no one reporting to you in a hierarchy and you can lead quite poorly with many people below you in the traditional chain of command. Leadership is about mobilizing people toward valued goals, and anyone can do this, in any aspect of life.

The really good news is that when you give people the tools and the support to pursue what I call "four-way wins" - that is, improved performance in all parts of life - they are actually much likely to achieve these wins and, through the process, develop further their leadership skills.

I'm a humanist and an optimist.

There are many structural changes, both in organizational practice and social policy, that must also change to enable men and women to have the freedom and support to pursue the lives they want to lead. Fortunately, many more people are today engaged in these efforts than when started working on this issue decades ago.

No one can have it all, at the same time. I've never seen that.