"The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." — Ken Blanchard

At Southwest, they're on a mission to democratize air travel. When they first started, the only people who could fly were relatively wealthy businesspeople, and Herb Kelleher's vision was to offer everyone the chance to visit a friend or relative during a happy and a sad time. That's a vision employees can get excited about.

In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.

For a manager to be perceived as a positive manager, they need a four to one positive to negative contact ratio.

Leadership is not about you; it's about investing in the growth of others.