WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush watches the inaugural parade from the Presidential reviewing stand in front of the White House January 20, 2005 in Washington, DC. His son, George W. Bush, was inaugurated for a second term earlier in the day. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Since his passing last week, the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush has been celebrated for his bravery and his service. The statesman has also been revered for his charisma and impact as a leader. Here, gathered from memories and eulogies of the former President, are lessons in leadership from George H. W. Bush that can help anyone looking to inspire and unify a team.

1. Share the credit, take the blame

2. Never underestimate the power of a simple, 'Thank you'

President H. W. Bush is famous for copiously writing thank you notes. In fact, his letters were the foundation for his own memoir, "All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings." "There exist thousands of handwritten notes encouraging, or sympathizing, or thanking his friends and acquaintances," President George W. Bush said of his father on Wednesday. As a column in the Washington Post says of the President H.W. Bush's frequent thank-you-note-writing: "Nothing was too small, too personal or too easily overlooked to merit a handwritten thank-you letter from George H. W. Bush, who died late Friday at 94." Catherine Meyer, a digital strategist (and, full disclosure, a former colleague of this reporter), says she received a thank you note from the Former President in 1990 and the short note deeply touched her.

"A lot has been said in recent days about George H. W. Bush and his thank you notes. It reminded me of one I received from him when I was a lowly editorial assistant. It made me feel so appreciated," Meyer says along with a photo of the note on Facebook. "A thank you....from the President! I never forgot that small gesture. We could learn a lot about decency from how he lived his life." The art of the thank-you is a soft skill good leaders have mastered. Google billionaire and former CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt has stressed that leaders should not underestimate the value of this simple gesture. "There's no simple formula for success, and there's no simple formula for being a great leader. It's a unique set of skills. But it is well understood that if you yell at people enough, they will quit, and if you're nice enough to them, they are less likely to quit," Schmidt says to Tyler Cowen on the "Conversations with Tyler " podcast. "Today, as entrepreneurs, remember that the quality of the people that you work with — the people you hire, the people on your board, and so forth — will determine an awful lot of your outcome." -Advice from @ericschmidt on team success Indeed, as a boss, saying thank you is savvy management, too. You are more likely to get more productive work from your employees if you remember those two words, Schmidt says. "All of the great leaders I've worked with have not used enough praise, although they've dragged along people because of their unique skills and so forth. But it just seems to me that if you take a moment, and you add the preamble of 'Thank you' or 'I appreciate it,' or 'I recognize it,' people's hearts sing, and you get a lot more work out of them," Schmidt says.

3. Failure is part of the process

In his eulogy, President George W. Bush also recognized his father's tenacity when faced with tough challenges. "He accepted that failure is part of living a full life, but taught us never to be defined by failure. He showed us how setbacks can strengthen," the 43rd President said Wednesday of his father, according to a transcript of the eulogy.