The first job of a leader is to define a vision for the organization...the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Leadership is like beauty - it's hard to define but you know it when you see it.

The opposite of hope is despair, and when we despair, it is because we feel there are no choices.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born - that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

First and foremost, effective leaders must continuously strive to make themselves smarter and better at making judgments.

The capacity for "uncontaminated wonder," ultimately, is what distinguishes the successful from the ordinary, the happily engaged players of whatever era from the chronically disappointed and malcontent. Therein lies a lesson for geeks, geezers, and the sea of people who fall in between.

Expect the best from your people and they will usually deliver but your expectations must be realistic.