Warren Bennis is the Professor of Business Administration at the University of Southern California.Bennis has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies and served as adviser to four U.S. presidents. In 2007, Business Week called him one of ten business school professors who have had the greatest influence on business thinking.
2007 # 24
2005 # 27
2003 # 13
2001 # 13
Warren Bennis quotes:
”Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.”
”Cicero talks, and people marvel; Ceasar talks and people march.”
”Companies which get misled by their own success are sure to be blind sided.”
”Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.”
”Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.”
”Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.”
”Great Groups are vivid Utopias. They are a picture of the way organizations ought to look -- sort of like a set of aspirations and a graphic illustration of what's possible. So how do we, in our mundane, quotidian organizations, create these things? I think there are a number of factors that we can look at.”
”Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.”
”He or she is a pragmatic dreamer, a person with an original but attainable vision. Ironically, the leader is able to realise his or her dream only if others are free to do exceptional work. Typically, the leader is the one who recruits the others, by making the vision so palpable and seductive that they see it, too, and eagerly sign up. Inevitably, the leader has to invent a leadership style that suits the group. The standard models, especially command and control, simply don't work. The heads of groups have to act decisively, but never arbitrarily. They have to make decisions without limiting the perceived autonomy of the other participants. Devising and maintaining an atmosphere in which others can put a dent in the universe is the leader's creative act.”
”I wanted the influence. In the end I wasn't very good at being a president. I looked out of the window and thought that the man cutting the lawn actually seemed to have more control over what he was doing.”
”I'd always rather err on the side of openness. But there's a difference between optimum and maximum openness, and fixing that boundary is a judgment call. The art of leadership is knowing how much information you're going to pass on -- to keep people motivated and to be as honest, as upfront, as you can. But, boy, there really are limits to that.”
”Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.”
”Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.”
”Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.”
”Leadership has become a heavy industry. Concern and interest about leadership development is no longer an American phenomenon. It is truly global. Though I will probably be in less demand, I wanted to move on.”
”Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”
”Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.”
”Our tendency to create heroes rarely jibes with the reality that most nontrivial problems require collective solutions.”
”People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.”
”Perhaps the key factor, and it's almost a banal thing to say, is finding a meaning in what you do. That is, how do you make people feel that what they're doing is somewhat equivalent to a search for the Holy Grail?”
”Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life, which is the sine qua non in becoming an integrated person.”
”The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.”
”The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the same failure something that happened to them that was personally difficult, even traumatic, something that made them feel that desperate sense of hitting bottom--as something they thought was almost a necessity. It's as if at that moment the iron entered their soul; that moment created the resilience that leaders need.”
”The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.”
”The manager administers; the leader innovates.”
”The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.”
”The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.”
”The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.”
”The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born -- that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.”
"The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born."
"There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish."
"This is more than just having a vision. You can see the difference in the often-cited way in which Steve Jobs brought in John Sculley to take over Apple. At the time, Sculley was destined to be the head of Pepsico. The clincher came when Jobs asked him, How many more years of your life do you want to spend making colored water when you can have an opportunity to come here and change the world?"
"Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work."
"What makes a good follower? The single most important characteristic may well be a willingness to tell the truth. In a world of growing complexity leaders are increasingly dependent on their subordinates for good information, whether the leaders want to hear it or not. Followers who tell the truth and leaders who listen to it are an unbeatable combination."
"Without a terrific leader, you're not going to have a Great Group. But it is also true that you're not going to have a great leader without a Great Group."
"You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future."
Books authored / co-authored by Warren Bennis:
- Yes You Can (2010)
- The Essential Bennis (2009)
- Geeks and Geezers (2002)
- On Becoming a Leader (1989)
- Leaning Ivory Tower (1973)
- American bureaucracy (1972)
- The Temporary Society (1968)
- The Planning of Change (1961)
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