Warren G. Bennis Quotes (28 Quotes)


    Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.

    You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future.

    Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right things.

    Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.

    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.


    Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.

    The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

    People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.

    Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.

    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.

    Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.

    The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.

    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 he

    There is a profound difference between information and meaning.

    There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.

    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.

    Make sure you have someone in your life from whom you can get reflective feedback.

    Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

    Cicero talks, and people marvel Ceasar talks and people march

    Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.

    Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

    The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

    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.

    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.

    Companies which get misled by their own success are sure to be blind sided.

    ... power is the basic energy needed to initiate and sustain action or, to put it another way, the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it. Leadership is the wise use of this power Transformative leadership.


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