Skills got them to the table. Capacity is what the table demands.

Being an executive is not about you. The higher you go, the more your attention is worth to the people around you — and the more you owe it to them.

Meet each person as a specific human being, not a role or a headcount, and be present with them no matter what else is pulling at you.

Every behavior you exhibit broadcasts the real standard. The values are only real if you live them.

Hold the values under scrutiny and under cost — in the hard decisions, when the organization is watching to see which one you’ll trade away.

Dysfunction never resolves on its own. Whatever you tolerate becomes the standard, and every day it stays it costs more to remove.

Name what everyone else is working around: catch it small, say it plainly, and stay with it until it’s actually gone.

Missing data isn’t a reason to stall. The job is to decide before the picture is complete.

Make sound calls on partial information: size the risk, commit to a direction, adjust as reality answers back.

The past can only predict a more-of-the-same future. What’s possible isn’t bounded by what’s happened.

See a future state clearly and articulate it so vividly that others see it too, and move toward it with you.

The current paradigm is a choice, not a constraint. Somewhere there’s a move that multiplies rather than adds.

Find the order-of-magnitude opportunities and hold out for them, refusing the comfort of incremental gains.

No task, role, or decision is self-justifying. Everything traces back to purpose or it doesn’t belong.

Make that link explicit in ways big and small, so people always see how their work connects to what the organization stands for.

People are moved by conviction, not information alone — and stirring them is part of the job.

Light a fire in the hearts of others that moves them to inspired action and uncommon results.

Your emotional state is your responsibility and everyone else’s context. Regulating yourself is leadership, not self-care.

Stay steady and perform at your highest under pressure, in a way that settles the people around you.

Your job is to be surpassed. Your leadership is measured by what others do after you.

Spot potential, hand over real responsibility, and coach people through the failures that build them.

You don’t need to be the expert in the room to be effective — relationships and fast learning get you there.

Apply general leadership skill to an unfamiliar area: learn fast, win the people who know it, and decide well anyway.

Arrival is a fiction. The day you stop growing is the day you start costing the organization.

Hold the posture of a learner in public: seek feedback, name what you’re working on, let others see you develop.