I wrote a book on leadership called, Vital Integrities: How Values-Based Leaders Acquire and Preserve Their Credibility. It is 252 pages long. In case you don't have time to read the whole thing, I have listed ten quotes from successful leaders that I referenced in my book. These quotes, taken out of context and standing alone, should provide all the advice you need to become a better leader.

Ricardo Semler: "If we have a cardinal strategy that forms the bedrock for all our practices, it may be this: Ask why. Ask it all the time, ask it any day, every day, and always ask it three times in a row."

Howard Schultz: "If people relate to the company they work for, if they share an emotional tie to it and buy in to its dreams, they will pour their heart into making it better."

Robert Reich: "The change agent of the old economy worked in an environment where incremental change was all that was needed -- and all that was tolerated. Change today demands the change insurgent."

Cynthia Cooper (WorldCom internal auditor who bravely disclosed to its board's audit committee how the company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through deceitful bookkeeping methods): "There is a price to be paid. There have been times that I could not stop crying."

Jeff Bezos: "I'd rather interview fifty people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person."

Mike Eskew (speaking to UPS employees after 9/11): "In today's climate of uncertainty, when our neighbors and friends and customers see our brown package cars rolling down the streets of Manhattan...or small towns across the country...they take comfort in knowing that the daily rhythm of life...and commerce...moves on."

Dana Beth Ardi: "Glorifying the top 20 percent doesn't ensure you get the job done. It's not about the top; it's about finding the right combination of people to accomplish the mission."

Billy Starr (founder of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, the largest athletic fundraising event in the country): "A unified force of people made whole by the belief in a single mission has the ability to improve the human condition."

Frederick W. Smith: "You have to have rewarding, alternate career paths for outstanding specialists -- engineers, for example, or R&D people -- who can continue to make major contributions to the organization without going into management."

Ralph Nader: "A basic function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."

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