If knowing yourself and being yourself were as easy to do as to talk about, there wouldn’t be nearly so many people walking around in borrowed postures, spouting secondhand ideas, trying desperately to fit in rather than to stand out.
WARREN G. BENNISThat’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.
More Warren G. Bennis Quotes
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If you’re the leader, you’ve got to give up your omniscient and omnipotent fantasies – that you know and must do everything. Learn how to abandon your ego to the talents of others.
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Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.
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Organizations should try to find out if their learning programs actually work.
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Followers who tell the truth and leaders who listen to it are an unbeatable combination.
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The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
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Effective leaders make a full commitment to be a learner, to keep increasing and nourishing their knowledge and wisdom.
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Don’t over-react to the trouble makers.
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Successful leadership is not about being tough or soft, sensitive or assertive, but about a set of attributes. First and foremost is character
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Listening to the inner voice – trusting the inner voice – is one of the most important lessons of leadership.
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Without character, there is no credibility; and without credibility, there is no trust.
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Those who take risks walk the high wire with no fear of falling.
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Around the world, the generals are being ousted, and the poets are taking charge.
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You are your own raw material. When you know what you consist of and what you want to make of it, then you can invent yourself.
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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.
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Government is like an onion. To understand it, you have to peel through many different layers. Most outsiders never get beyond the first or second layer.
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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.
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Leaders are people who believe so passionately that they can seduce other people into sharing their dream.
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That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.
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Coaching will become the model for leaders in the future… I am certain that leadership can be learned and that terrific coaches… facilitate learning.
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Companies which get misled by their own success are sure to be blind sided.
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Leaders wonder about everything, want to learn as much as they can, are willing to take risks, experiment, try new things. They do not worry about failure but embrace errors, knowing they will learn from them.
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Think of a crucible as an occasion for real magic, the creation of something more valuable than an alchemist could possibly imagine. In it, the individual is transformed, changed, created anew. He or she grows in ways that change his or her definition of self.
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The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.
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Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.
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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.
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Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders. All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.
WARREN G. BENNIS