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To have influence, you really don't need to have power. But what you need more than anything else is to have that almost uncanny understanding of what matters to people.

I have more influence now than when I had the power.

My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

Everyone is influencing the people around them one way or another.

Influence is a very unpleasant subject and I deal with it in a maybe irresponsible way, which is to really ignore it. It would be a nightmare if we started to really think about it; it would tie our hands, it would tie everyone else's hands.

Leadership is influence.

Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you've got.

I get influence from everybody and everything.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

Part of me loves to control and to exert power, but it's not the best part of me at all. What I am slowly learning is that allowing others to have power too makes us a better organisation - many brains are simply better than one.