Leadership

It's tougher being a leader now, in 2022, than it was in 1982 when I joined the Foreign Office. Leaders are examined much more closely, and constantly, now than they were in the past.

Power is the ability to get things done, to have your way and to make people do things they perhaps didn't want to do – such as pay taxes or go to war.

The clearest thing about being a diplomat is the knowledge that you aren't in control. The problems you're dealing with are huge – with multiple players and facets. Nobody involved in diplomacy can kid themselves that they are in charge, or in control.

A less experienced, less comfortable, version of myself would get angry and then realise they were angry. The meditative version of me can anticipate when I'm going to get angry- and then, it becomes a choice. Do you want to be angry? Or have a different attitude?

My identity, and that of the company, were one-and-the-same, and that's not just inaccurate, it's unhealthy. You don't want to be on the yo-yo of your company's wins and fails. You can keep doing the right things daily and getting 1% better every day, independently of how the business is performing!

You don't want to go into a negotiation thinking you will do A, B & C to get to D… you want to think about your goal – negotiation is not about reaching agreement, it's about meeting your objective as best as possible.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

I've done a few very-right things in my life that I'm proud of, and one of them was getting to know Joey and bringing him into the business. Joey was a gift, and we knew we shouldn't miss out on him.

Yes today sucked, but come back tomorrow, I'll meet you there. That means the world to somebody who doesn't feel like getting out of bed that day.

I grew up in survival mode. It was constant. I didn't know what to expect on any given day, what was coming, and I had to be strong enough to be ready for anything – to take it, hide from it, or dodge it. I had to have a strategy.

It's not success we should be seeking but consonance, alignment, flow. When what we do actually matters to us. We are being called upon to solve a problem at hand, to use what we do best in the world, and in turn being rewarded for in a way that is meaningful to us.

It's strange though, I never feel this as a weight when I'm around kids – I feel so much lighter. They have an impact on me, as much as I hope to have an impact on them. It's a real mutual benefit.

Olympic Alpine Skier with Most World Cup Wins by Female Athlete

The small things are what make the biggest impact sometimes – and that starts with how you treat people. My 90 seconds with Picabo changed my life. You'd be surprised how many kids have parents and peers around there who tell them they can't, I want to tell them they can.

Olympic Alpine Skier with Most World Cup Wins by Female Athlete

Our story, our fight, the story of President Zelenskyy… these all come together in the story of how everyone is capable of more than the world expects of them.

Ukrainian politician and head of Servant of the People party faction

Most great sellers and leaders figure out the things they love about their job – what they would do for free – and set up the infrastructure to intentionally avoid the parts that force them to show up inauthentically.

We've never met anybody that has changed the world without moving people. We've never met anyone that changed their own world without moving people. Moving people is not a 'yucky' thing. Martin Luther King Jr. moved people.

My wife Freada coined a phrase, distance travelled. We're very interested in where somebody started in life, and what hurdles and barriers they have already overcome in their journey – and how that grit has got them to where they are now.

Founder of Lotus Software & Digital Rights Pioneer