Warren G. Bennis Quotes, Thoughts and Image

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

In life, change is inevitable. In business, change is vital.

Successful leadership is not about being tough or soft, sensitive or assertive, but about a set of attributes. First and foremost is character

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

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

Without character, there is no credibility; and without credibility, there is no trust.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

You are your own raw material. When you know what you consist of and what you want to make of it, then you can invent yourself.

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

All great leaders constantly seek new information and new ways of thinking.

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

Leadership is like beauty - it's hard to define but you know it when you see it.

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.

One of the worst mistakes is to do nothing.

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

Charisma is the result of effective leadership, not the other way around.

Manage the dream: Create a compelling vision, one that takes people to a new place, and then translate that vision into a reality.

Vision animates, inspires, transforms purpose into action.

The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.

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

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

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.

Recognize the skills and traits you don't possess, and hire the people who have them.

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

Successful leaders are great askers

Government is like an onion. To understand it, you have to peel through many different layers. Most outsiders never get beyond the first or second layer.