Valerie Plame Quotes

I think the best thing a team can have is different leaders.

I've spent a lot of time in my political life talking about why it matters to have women in the decision making, whether it's at the family table, whether it's in a board room, whether it's in the halls of Congress, whether it's in your community meeting. And it has to do with the fact that women's lives are different. You know? They're not better or worse than men's, but they are different and we bring that different perspective to whatever we do. And it's important to have that perspective at the table.

I think when we were starting off, I picked a group of women to represent me. The top tiers of everyone that I've worked with are women. It felt more comfortable because they can relate to me.

I was very proud, on just my second day in office, to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet - one of only three in the developed world.

You need to mesh the voices of people with expertise and meritocracy.

We've got to get women to sit at the table.

I think that in any group activity - whether it be business, sports, or family - there has to be leadership or it won't be successful.

Men need to hire more women and put them in higher positions of power within organizations.

It's awesome that you have a female CFO and a female GC, but if you look at the investing partners, and it's 15 dudes, I do think those people are going to get left behind if they don't get with where the world is going.

Women are problem solvers, and often we don't get much credit for that because the typical image of a leader is someone who's loud, obnoxious, chest-pounding. That's not my vision of what true leadership is; true leaders are the ones who work with great commitment to get something done.

If I'm in the position where I get to hire someone, where I get to decide who joins me on tour, then I am mindful about that, and I try to suggest women that I know who I think deserve more exposure.

I'm a big fan of having a team with different thoughts and backgrounds and experiences; that makes for a better enterprise and better decision-making.

Being the captain is a great privilege and a responsibility to lead a great group with different cultures.

I don't necessarily think about being a woman as I make decisions, but I do value diversity of opinion and encourage others to speak up and do their best work.

I'm very much a team-oriented person. I love to have diverse viewpoints because I think we make better decisions.

The culture of tech companies cannot change if women aren't in the room.

Collaborative decision-making is very poor in crises.

If you have got diversity on your board, then you are going to have new ideas come to the table.

You want to be inclusive, but you can't be to the extent of having so many people involved that it slows you down.

By the time I sold Birmingham City football club in 2009, 75% of the directors were women, which I take great pride in - that's unique in business, full stop.

Decisions just look different with women at the table. We still have a long way to go. The most powerful thing we own is our vote.

I'm a pragmatist. I think, as a woman, you have to be more careful. You have to be more communal, you have to say yes to more things than men, you have to worry about things that men don't have to worry about. But once we get enough women into leadership, we can break stereotypes down. If you lead, you get to decide.

Most bands don't work out. A small unit democracy is very, very difficult.

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.

What I've learned is that unless it's an emergency, like a fire or brain surgery, hierarchy is not necessary and may be damaging. If you have a hierarchy, you're repeating the strengths and weaknesses of one person without allowing for the accumulative strength of a group.