“The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas.”

And the more you build your will by doing hard things, the stronger your will becomes.

The goal of leadership seems simple: to get people to do what they need to do to support the mission and the team.

Remember: the enemy gets a vote.

Trust is not blindly given. It must be built over time.

The leader must own everything in his or her world.

Good leaders are rare; bad leaders are common.

A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risk and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops.

Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.

Decisively engaged?

Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously.

Relax. Look around. Make a call.

Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.

For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.

In the business world, and in life, there are inherent complexities. It is critical to keep plans and communication simple.

When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate. When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable.

The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.

It is not wise, or even possible, to divorce private behavior from public leadership…. By its very nature, true leadership carries with it the burden of being an example.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

God’s words trump all opinions, including mine, and in the end, I believe God’s words lead to life.

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.

When love is absent, then there is fear, and in my opinion you should lead your entire life through love.

We are not trapped in what the science of management says we can do. We are capable of doing what the art of leadership says is possible.

People would say ‘Who is a leader?’ A leader is a person that does the work. It’s very simple. It’s a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It’s a personal choice.

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.