Warren G. Bennis Leader Quotations

The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.

Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.

Leaders should always expect the very best of those around them. They know that people can change and grow.

Unlike top management at Enron, exemplary leaders reward dissent. They encourage it. They understand that, whatever momentary discomfort they experience as a result of being told they might be wrong, it is more than offset by the fact that the information will help them make better decisions.

The manager administers; the leader innovates.

Coaching will become the model for leaders in the future... I am certain that leadership can be learned and that terrific coaches... facilitate learning.

Successful leaders are great askers

A leader is someone whose actions have the most profound consequences on other people's lives, for better or worse, sometime forever and ever.

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

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

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

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.

Perhaps the central task of the leader of leaders thus becomes the development of other leaders.

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

More leaders have been made by accident, circumstance, sheer grit, or will than have been made by all the leadership courses put together.

While great leaders may be as rare as great runners, great actors, or great painters, everyone has leadership potential, just as everyone has some ability at running, acting, and painting.

Learning to be an effective leader is no different than learning to be an effective person. And that's the hard part

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

Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together.

Growing other leaders from the ranks isn't just the duty of the leader, it's an obligation.

The leader...is rarely the brightest person in the group. Rather they have extraordinary taste, which makes them more curators than creators. They are appreciators of talent and nurturers of talent and they have the ability to recognize valuable ideas.