Madeleine Albright

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

You don’t reward failure by promoting those responsible for it, because all you get is more failure.

Even as entrepreneurs, we rely on people to get things done. We may have the original idea, but moving it forward can involve hundreds of people. Every person becomes integral to the overall success.

You do your job, you keep your job. Do it well, you get a better job.

Respect people with less power then you. I don’t care if you’re the most powerful cat in the room, I will judge you on how you treat the least powerful. So there.

It’s easy to demonise people, you’re usually wrong about it, people are nicer than you think.

When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment.

The challenge of leadership is to create change and facilitate growth.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

I feel like the thing we can do is celebrate people doing great work and create more cultural momentum and awareness that this is an important thing in the world. So when the next economic crisis hits and people are talking about where to cut from the budget, science isn’t the thing.

A great leader has to be flexible, holding his ground on the major principles but finding room for compromises that can bring people together. A great leader has to be savvy at negotiations so we don’t drown every bill in pork barrel bridges to nowhere. I know how to stand my ground – but I also know that Republicans and Democrats need to find common ground to stand on as well.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

If you wouldn’t follow yourself, why should anyone else?