Warren G. Bennis Quotes
Scholar
Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.
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 manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.
Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.
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.
Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.
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.
Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.
There is a profound difference between information and meaning.
Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.
People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.
Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.
Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.
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.
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 manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.
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.
The original and brilliant idea of an MBA was the opportunity for students to study the theory and application of business and management principles.
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future.
Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.
The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders. All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.
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.
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.
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.
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'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.
As my blog editor knows all too well, I wasn't all that keen to enter the blogosphere world.
Learning options will indeed mushroom for business students and leaders, but it will take prudence and shrewdness to find and utilize the best option.
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.
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.
Specialized management courses are useful but should come well after the complexity of management and business are understood.
Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow.