Leadership is like beauty - it's hard to define but you know it when you see it. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The ability to plan for what has not yet happened, for a future that has only been imagined, is one of the… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Perhaps the central task of the leader of leaders thus becomes the development of other leaders. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Leaders do not avoid, repress, or deny conflict, but rather see it as an opportunity — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
What job is worth the enormous psychic cost of following a leader who values loyalty in the narrowest sense. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
First and foremost, effective leaders must continuously strive to make themselves smarter and better at making judgments. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Great leaders love talent and know where to find it. They surround themselves with talented people who can work effectively together. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Leaders are people who do the right thing: managers are people who do things right. Both roles are crucial, but they differ… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Create strategic alliances and partnerships: Now and in years to come, shrewd leaders will create allegiances with other organizations whose fates are… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
If you're the leader, you've got to give up your omniscient and omnipotent fantasies - that you know and must do everything.… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Power is the basic energy needed to initiate and sustain action or, to put it another way, the capacity to translate intention… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do professionally and personally, and the strength to persist in the… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
A leader is someone whose actions have the most profound consequences on other people's lives, for better or worse, sometime forever and… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Encourage reflective backtalk: Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The leader...is rarely the brightest person in the group. Rather they have extraordinary taste, which makes them more curators than creators. They… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Every one of the geezers who continues to play a leadership role has one quality of overriding importance: neotony. The dictionary definition… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Encourage dissent: Leaders should have associates who have contrary views, who are devil's advocates, "variance sensors" who can tell them the difference… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive. Great Groups offer a new model… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Unlike top management at Enron, exemplary leaders reward dissent. They encourage it. They understand that, whatever momentary discomfort they experience as a… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
All of great leaders evidence four basic qualities that are central to their ability to lead: adaptive capacity, the ability to engage… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
I'd always rather err on the side of openness. But there's a difference between optimum and maximum openness, and fixing that boundary… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The leaders I met, whatever walk of life they were from, whatever institutions they were presiding over, always referred back to the… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
“Neoteny is more than retaining a youthful appearance, although that is often part of it. Neoteny is the retention of all those… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
To become a leader, then, you must become yourself, become the maker of your own life — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Listening to the inner voice - trusting the inner voice - is one of the most important lessons of leadership. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
People who know what they want and why they want it, and have the skills to communicate that to others in a… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Servant leadership teaches us that you have to lay your cards on the table. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The first job of a leader is to define a vision for the organization...the capacity to translate vision into reality. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
The basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mindset, the framework of the other person. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Leaders must earn the trust of their teams, their organizations, and their stakeholders before attempting to engage their support. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
People in great groups have blinders on. Their work is all they see. They value failures as learning opportunities. They are optimistic, not realistic,… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Great groups deliver great results. And for everyone involved in a great group, great work is its own reward. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Leadership is like beauty - it's hard to define but you know it when you see it. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Coaching will become the model for leaders in the future... I am certain that leadership can be learned and that terrific coaches... facilitate learning. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Servant leadership teaches us that you have to lay your cards on the table. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Recognize and respect mutual self-interests, then build creative collaborations to serve them. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
If great teams don't have an "enemy," they create one for themselves because, as former Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta pointed out, "you can't have… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
All great leaders constantly seek new information and new ways of thinking. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Trust is difficult to define, but we know when it's present and when it's not. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
Around the world, the generals are being ousted, and the poets are taking charge. — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
A passion for continual learning, a refined, discerning ear for the moral and ethical consequences of their actions, and an understanding of the purposes… — Warren G. Bennis Copy Share Image
