Warren Bennis - Definition and Overview

Warren Bennis is a lecturer, business administration and leadership theorist and writer. He currently holds a position at the University of Southern California.

He has been an adviser to four presidents of the United States, including both John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. He is a founder of Universtity's Leadership Institute in Los Angeles.

He has written over 20 books on the topic of leadership, consulted and lectured all over the world.

Quotes

• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
• The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born -- that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.
• (In future problems will be solved by) task forces composed of relative strangers who represent a set of diverse proffesional skills

Bibliography

• 'Beyond Bureaucracy: Essays on the Development and Evolution of Human Organization'
• 'Beyond Counterfeit Leadership: How You Can Become a More Authentic Leader'
• 'Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology'
• 'Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships'
• 'Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge'
• 'Managing People Is Like Herding Cats: Warren Bennis on Leadership'
• 'Managing the Dream: Reflections on Leadership and Change'
• 'On Becoming a Leader'
• 'Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration'
• 'The Unreality Industry: The Deliberate Manufacturing of Falsehood and What It Is Doing to Our Lives '
• 'Visionary Leadership: Creating a Compelling Sense of Direction for Your Organization'
• 'Why Leaders Can't Lead: The Unconscious Conspiracy Continues'

External links

• The Leadership Advantage by Warren Bennis, article, full text online (http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/l2l/spring99/bennis.html)
• The Secrets of Great Groups, article, full text online (http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/L2L/winter97/bennis.html)
• Warren Bennis biography at Thinkers50 (http://www.thinkers50.co.uk/?page=biography&ranking=13)
• Warren Bennis biography at BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/work/handy/bennisbiography.shtml)

Example Usage of Warren