W Bennis Quotes & Sayings

Leadership (according to John Sculley) revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation. A leader must be able to leverage more than his own capabilities. He must be capable of inspiring other people to do things without actually sitting on top of them with a checklist. — Warren G. Bennis

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

To be authentic is literally to be your own author, to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them. — Warren G. Bennis

Emotional intelligence, more than any other factor, more than I.Q. or expertise, accounts for 85% to 90% of success at work ... I.Q. is a threshold competence. You need it, but it doesn't make you a star. Emotional intelligence can. — Warren G. Bennis

Great Groups need to know that the person at the top will fight like a tiger for them. — Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential. — Warren G. Bennis

Listening to the inner voice - trusting the inner voice - is one of the most important lessons of leadership. — Warren G. Bennis

Make sure you have someone in your life from whom you can get reflective feedback. — Warren G. Bennis

Don't over-react to the trouble makers. — Warren G. Bennis

Without a terrific leader, you're not going to have a Great Group. But it is also true that you're not going to have a great leader without a Great Group. — Warren G. Bennis

Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together. — Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is the capacity to turn vision into reality. — Warren Bennis

The original and brilliant idea of an MBA was the opportunity for students to study the theory and application of business and management principles. — Warren Bennis

I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be. — Warren G. Bennis

There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish. — Warren Bennis

The ideal boss for a growing leader is probably a good boss with major flaws, so that one can learn all the complex lessons of what to do and what not to do simultaneously. — Warren G. Bennis

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. Bennis

The basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mindset, the framework of the other person. — Warren G. Bennis

Ineffective leaders often act on the advice and counsel of the last person they talked to. — Warren G. Bennis

In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. — Warren G. Bennis

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

Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it. — Warren G. Bennis

You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future. — Warren Bennis

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. — Warren Bennis

Silence - not dissent - is the one answer that leaders should refuse to accept. — Warren G. Bennis

Once you recognize, or admit, that your primary goal is to fully express yourself, you will find the means to achieve the rest of your goals ... — Warren G. Bennis

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. — Warren Bennis

Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing. — Warren Bennis

Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality. — Warren Bennis

If I were to give off-the-cuff advice to anyone trying to institute change, I would say, "How clear is the metaphor?" — Warren G. Bennis