"John Gardner, Stanford professor, former secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and founding Common Cause, has written that there are four moral goals of leadership:

• Releasing human potential
• Balancing the needs of the individual and the community
• Defending the fundamental values of the community
• Instilling in individuals a sense of initiative and responsibility

Attending to these goals will always direct your eyes to higher purposes. As you work to become all you can be, you start to let go of your petty self-interests. As you give back what you have been given, you can reconstruct your communities. As you serve the values of freedom, justice, equality, caring, and dignity, you can constantly renew the foundations of democracy. As each of us takes individual responsibility for creating the world of our dreams, we can participate in leading."

- James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge