Leadership

Establishing a culture of truth and trust is absolutely critical to being a great leader, and that takes effort and energy every day. You have to ceaselessly reach for truth and trust every day, and you have to be relentless in your pursuit of trust, and show your people that you have their back.

Former CEO of General Electric; Pioneered "Jack Welch Management" Techniques

You must surround yourself with great people, and as you grow, never forget the generosity gene. Building a great team is what this business game is all about. The team with the best players working together wins.

Former CEO of General Electric; Pioneered "Jack Welch Management" Techniques

Your corporate's social responsibility is to win. You cannot be generous from an empty wagon! This nonsense about giving when you're broke is ridiculous. Corporate responsibility, first and foremost, is to win. You can then take those resources from winning and allocate them as you see fit.

Former CEO of General Electric; Pioneered "Jack Welch Management" Techniques

In my experience, great advisors are the ones who give you the scaffolding to observe your gut-instinct from every angle and arrive at decisions which allow you to flourish.

Had the first astronauts or explorers listened to advice, chances are they would never have embarked on those world-changing adventures. The same is true of entrepreneurs. First and foremost, entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs because their gut had an insight or an idea that's driven them.

Much like whiskey, advice is best when it's of a high-quality, with provenance, and in short amounts. Have too much? And you're likely to be on the floor unable to make any good decisions.

The most important thing a leader has to have is an idea on where they want to go and the ability to bring people with them. Most discussion about leadership is about styles and characteristics, but the most important thing is having a clear sense — and a right sense — of where you want to go.

Former CEO of Microsoft & Owner of Los Angeles Clippers

One of the defining experiences I had with CNET, a digital media company where I was the fourth employee back in the dawn of the internet, was recognizing the power of asking for help.

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

Too often I feel there is also a search for 'the next' Steve Jobs or Joanna Shields. These are extraordinary people and yet I believe we should not treat entrepreneurialism as requiring a narrow checklist of certain characteristics.

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

Entrepreneurship is the relentless drive to carry-on, no matter what. Entrepreneurship is tolerance, focus and dedication. Entrepreneurship is this 'true north' belief that whatever this 'thing' is that you want to bring to culture, that you will see it through… and that you are the one here to usher it into existence.

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

As business-leaders we have to start taking responsibility to speak-out about our own struggles, so that others do the same- and by doing so, make our teams and our peers realise that it's fine to not be fine.

I see it as my moral obligation in this world to help these people unlock their potential so they can start working on humanity's grand challenges.

You can't be successful unless you're genuine as a human being and honest. The startups in our world that are really successful are both genuine and honest; they bring that pure level of passion to the table and they're very honest about the world around them.

There is no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated yourself. People are fundamental in driving the success of a business. You should treat your employees like the smart and capable adults they are.

Founder of Virgin Group & Billionaire Entrepreneur & Adventurer

Don't become paralysed by anticipating the unexpected. It does not pay to be worried about failure. If your mind is crowded with thoughts of what could happen, you will never achieve your best performance.

Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11; Second Person to Walk on Moon

Every failure has lessons it can give us- and knowing failure is possible and monitoring where you expect it to occur, allows you to divert your attention to the necessary observations and actions to carry out the positive.

Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11; Second Person to Walk on Moon