Warren G. Bennis Quotes about Leadership

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.

Leaders learn by leading, and they learn bestby leading in the face of obstacles. As weather shapes mountains, problems shape leaders.

The new leader is one who commits people to action, who converts followers into leaders, and who may convert leaders into agents of change.

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

Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination.

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.

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.

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

Leaders do not avoid, repress, or deny conflict, but rather see it as an opportunity

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

Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.

It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers.

To become a leader, then, you must become yourself, become the maker of your own life

Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.

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.

The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do professionally and personally, and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures

The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.

Around the world, the generals are being ousted, and the poets are taking charge.

A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless... someone's got to make a wake up call.

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.