Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say--and What You Don't

by L. David Marquet

They agreed never to wait to be told what to do. Instead, they would provide their intentions to me, how they were going to achieve my intent. This shift was reflected in a simple change of language, replacing “request permission to” with “I intend to.”

Leadership is about the hard work of taking responsibility for how our actions and words affect the lives of others.

Here is the key difference: Thinking benefits from embracing variability. Doing benefits from reducing variability.