Warren Bennis
Title: Professor Warren Gamaliel Bennis
Full Name: Warren Gamaliel Bennis
Birthdate: March 8, 1925
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Date of Death: July 31, 2014
Occupation: Author and Professor of Business Administration
Profile: Best known for
Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge.
Website: http://www.warrenbennis.com/
Number of Quotes: 53
A business short on capital can borrow money, but a business short on leadership has little chance of survival.
Often paraphrased.
A great director or leader knows his people, creates a great team, and then makes
a great movie that can influence millions more than the readers of his column.
As my blog editor knows all too well, I wasn't all that keen to enter the blogosphere world.
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It's precisely that simple, and it's also that difficult.
On Becoming a Leader
Copying other organizations' activities sounds like industrial espionage to
some people, but the truth is that benchmarking is perfectly legal and ethical.
Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.
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.
Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge
Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders.
All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.
Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration
Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.
How can we educators claim credit for understanding, let alone teaching, the
global mind
without a single course on the impact of religion on every day life?
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've become more and more aware of the promise and struggle to teach the global mind nowadays because I use every chance I get to ask faculty and
administrators of management education programs why we don't offer at least one course - not even required, just an elective - on the world's religions.
Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.
Often quoted distinction, clarifying his view on leadership vs. management.
Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.
Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.
Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.
Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow.
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 about character: the character to do the right thing, even when it's difficult; the
character to stand up for what you believe in; the character to take responsibility for your actions.
A recurring theme.
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
One of his most succinct and famous definitions.
Learning in a face-to-face human community, as humans have evolved to do over hundreds of thousands of
years, may always be the ideal - especially in an endeavor that is as relationship-driven as business.
Learning options will indeed mushroom for business students and leaders, but it will take prudence and shrewdness to find and utilize the best option.
Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things.
Managers do things right; leaders do the right thing.
Slightly different phrasing of the above core distinction.
Managers embrace process, seek stability and control, and instinctively try to resolve problems quickly - sometimes before they fully understand a problem's
significance. Leaders, in contrast, tolerate chaos and lack of structure and are willing to delay closure in order to understand the issues more fully.
More detailed explanation of the distinction.
Most regular, two-year MBA programs provide both experience and the capacity to link together the
essential elements of management such as finance, marketing, organizational behavior, and operations.
No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become leaders.
Reflecting the organic nature of leadership emergence.
One of the best teaching experiences Ed Schein and I had when we were teaching at MIT in the 1960s was inventing a course on leadership through film.
People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.
Specialized management courses are useful but should come well after the complexity of management and business are understood.
Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.
Emphasizing continuous learning.
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 leader ... is rarely the brightest person in the group. Rather, they have extraordinary taste, which makes them more curators
than creators. They are appreciators of talent and nurturers of talent and they have the ability to recognize valuable ideas.
The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
Another facet of the core distinction.
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
Further elaboration on the leadership/management distinction.
The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader's eye is on the horizon.
Focusing on vision vs. immediate results.
The manager imitates; the leader originates.
Highlighting innovation as a leadership trait.
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.
Fundamental belief challenging the born leader idea.
The only way many companies can attract and keep the best people is by offering them
more than merely money or prestige - they offer them the chance to make history.
The original and brilliant idea of an MBA was the opportunity for students to study the theory and application of business and management principles.
The primary goal of management education was, as originally conceived, to impart
knowledge that could be applied to a variety of real-world business situations.
The process of becoming a leader is much the same as the process of becoming an integrated human being.
On Becoming a Leader
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
There is a profound difference between information and meaning.
Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have
unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, not should they be.
Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together.
Emphasizing the foundational role of trust.
Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.
Vision animates, inspirits, and transforms purpose into action.
Highlighting the power of vision.
You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future.
Last on Earth
