As the CEO of Microsoft, Gates once expressed an ideology now in demand in people-centered work cultures: “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

One thing remains more true now than ever Good leaders set themselves apart by effectively influencing and empowering their human workers in a time of crisis. They do it by responding daily to the challenges facing their people and doing whatever it takes to protect employees or the business.

This is how great leaders courageously shine with heroic displays of empathy and compassion .

Gates is also quick to acknowledge his close pal Warren Buffett as a teacher whose wisdom has made a huge impact on his life.

“No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy more time,” writes Gates. “There are only 24 hours in everyone’s day.Warren has a keen sense of this. He doesn’t let his calendar get filled up with useless meetings.”

And successful people, like Buffett and Gates, are keenly aware of centering their whole day around the things that matter the most. They manage themselves extremely well in order to manage their time to focus on that “one thing.”

Gates admits delegating didn’t come easy to him in the early days of Microsoft. He knew his obsession with programming wasn’t sustainable if the company was to scale, so he had to consciously trust other people’s ability to write software.

As Microsoft grew, so did his management responsibilities. Gates soon realized that he had to learn to delegate his weaknesses like managing the people side of the business.

If your responsibilities have outgrown your capacity to handle them, the first pillar to successful delegation is to have a great team around you who can handle the task.