Without a terrific leader, you're not going to have a Great Group. But it is also true that you're not going to have a great leader without a Great Group.

More leaders have been made by accident, circumstance, sheer grit, or will than have been made by all the leadership courses put together.

Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders. All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.

The future has no shelf life

Leaders must earn the trust of their teams, their organizations, and their stakeholders before attempting to engage their support.

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. Someone once wrote that the sound of surprise is jazz, and if there's any one thing that we must try to get used to in this world, it's surprise and the unexpected. Truly, we are living in world where the only thing that's constant is change.