Listening to the inner voice – trusting the inner voice – is one of the most important lessons of leadership.
WARREN G. BENNISIf 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.
More Warren G. Bennis Quotes
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The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.
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People in great groups have blinders on. Their work is all they see. They value failures as learning opportunities. They are optimistic, not realistic, as they proceed from one challenge and crisis to the next.
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In great groups, the right people always have the right job.
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Encourage reflective backtalk: Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.
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The ability to plan for what has not yet happened, for a future that has only been imagined, is one of the hallmarks of leadership.
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Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.
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Great things are achieved by talented people who are absolutely convinced that they not only can but will achieve them.
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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.
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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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Great groups deliver great results. And for everyone involved in a great group, great work is its own reward.
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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.
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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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I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation.
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There is a profound difference between information and meaning.
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The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
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Leaders learn by leading, and they learn bestby leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders.
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Manage the dream: Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.
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Judgment without character is expediency… or worse.
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It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers.
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Those who take risks walk the high wire with no fear of falling.
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Leaders are people who do the right thing: managers are people who do things right. Both roles are crucial, but they differ profoundly. I often observe people in top positions doing wrong things well.
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Successful leaders are great askers
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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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Ineffective leaders often act on the advice and counsel of the last person they talked to.
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Leadership is like beauty – it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it.
WARREN G. BENNIS