True buoyant leaders can never communicate in percentage points, or charts and figures. First and foremost, they must be storytellers, communicating with their hearts, not heads.

What I've come to realize is that emotional intelligence, which I define as buoyancy, was the only way I knew how to lead, and is, in my option, the only way to inspire real change.

As buoyancy is not contrary to other characteristics of leadership, including decisiveness, accountability and performance standards, I don't ever think it can be self-defeating.

The secret is to be prepared, to draw on the strengths of the people around you, and most importantly, to instill confidence that your team will step up and find a solution.

At the end of the day it's really easy to be a great leader when things are going well. The real test, whether or not you believe in being an emotionally intelligent leader, is when things go wrong.

As a sensitive and highly intuitive person in the command-and-control corporate world, I always felt miscast.

Mandela stands alone in possessing all of the qualities of other great men, but has one quality which is transcendent... his ability to forgive and to place others above himself.

My grandfather used to say to me when I was a boy, "Getting knocked down is no big prize - it's getting up that's the real trick." I couldn't agree more.

Maintaining patience, being generous, and helping your peers takes time, and no small amount of emotional fortitude. But it brings an exponential difference in your team's ability to problem-solve.

As I was coming up in business, screwing up was not an option in any form.

Survival in the demand economy depends on and requires experimentation, risk taking, and trial and error.

You begin with other people's stories and end up with your own.

I am what you might call a rambling man, and America is my beat.

I may not be a king or a queen, but I'll be damned if I'm not treated like royalty.

My generation has failed to stop the arms race. But it's really the men who have failed. Now it's up to the women, and I believe they can do it.

I wonder what it's like to have that much power over a boy. I don't think I'd want it - it's a lot of responsibility to hold a person's heart in your hands.

What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States.

I know some people need counseling but not everyone can afford it.

If Jehovah cannot support his religion without going into partnership with a State Legislature, I think he ought to give it up.

Certainly the last thing I want is to be "difficult."

You gotta love everything you do. You just gotta do it.