Leaders are people who do the right thing: managers are people who do things right. Both roles are crucial, but they differ profoundly. I often observe people in top positions doing wrong things well.

All great leaders constantly seek new information and new ways of thinking.

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

If knowing yourself and being yourself were as easy to do as to talk about, there wouldn't be nearly so many people walking around in borrowed postures, spouting secondhand ideas, trying desperately to fit in rather than to stand out.

The crucible is a dividing line, a turning point, and those who have gone through it feel they are very different from the way they were before. Believing that they have been transformed or have transformed themselves, those who survive the crucible (and many don't) are more confident, more willing to take future risks. That new self-confidence is grounded in the belief that he or she has done something hard and done it well.

Understand the "Pygmalion Effect": Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow.

In great groups, the right people always have the right job.