The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are.

The place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, inside our circle of influence, our own character.

Synergy is almost as if a group collectively agrees to subordinate old scripts and to write a new one.

We see the world, not as it is, but as we areor, as we are conditioned to see it.

In winwin performance agreements, consequences become the natural or logical result of performance rather than a reward or punishment arbitrarily handed out by the person in charge.

In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment-independent will-that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.