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Every One Of The Geezers Who Continues To Play A Leadership Role Has One Quality Of Overriding Importance: Neotony. The Dictionary Definition Is That Neotony, A Zoological Term, Involves "the Retention Of Youthful Qualities Throughout Old Age." It Is More Than Merely Retaining A Youthful Appearance, Although That Is Often Part Of It. Neotony Is The Retention Of All Those Wonderful Qualities That We Associate With Youth: Curiosity, Playfulness, Eagerness, Fearlessness, Warmth, Energy.

-Warren G. Bennis

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Every One Of The

Warren G. Bennis

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Every One Of The Geezers Who Continues To Play A Leadership Role Has One Quality Of Overriding Importance: Neotony. The Dictionary Definition Is That Neotony, A Zoological Term, Involves "the Retention Of Youthful Qualities Throughout Old Age." It Is More Than Merely Retaining A Youthful Appearance, Although That Is Often Part Of It. Neotony Is The Retention Of All Those Wonderful Qualities That We Associate With Youth: Curiosity, Playfulness, Eagerness, Fearlessness, Warmth, Energy.

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Significant Change

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The Opposite Of Hope Is Despair, And When We Despair, It Is Because We Feel There Are No Choices.

Trust Resides Squarely Between Faith And Doubt.

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That Is The Key Challenge Facing Management Today; Change Is The Only Constant.

Trust Is The Lubrication That Makes It Possible For Organizations To Work.

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Growing Other Leaders From The Ranks Isn't Just The Duty Of The Leader, It's An Obligation.

Leaders Know The Importance Of Having Someone In Their Lives Who Will Unfailingly And Fearlessly Tell Them The Truth.

Leadership Has Become A Heavy Industry. Concern And Interest About Leadership Development Is No Longer An American Phenomenon. It Is Truly Global. Though I Will Probably Be In Less Demand, I Wanted To Move On.

Understand Stakeholder Symmetry: Find The Appropriate Balance Of Competing Claims By Various Groups Of Stakeholders.

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Great Things Are Achieved By Talented People Who Are Absolutely Convinced That They Not Only Can But Will Achieve Them.

Encourage Dissent: Leaders Should Have Associates Who Have Contrary Views, Who Are Devil's Advocates, "variance Sensors" Who Can Tell Them The Difference Between What Is Expected And What Is Really Happening, Between What They Want To Hear And What They Need To Hear. There Are Too Many Naked Emperors Running Around Today.

Think Of A Crucible As An Occasion For Real Magic, The Creation Of Something More Valuable Than An Alchemist Could Possibly Imagine. In It, The Individual Is Transformed, Changed, Created Anew. He Or She Grows In Ways That Change His Or Her Definition Of Self.

Ineffective Leaders Often Act On The Advice And Counsel Of The Last Person They Talked To.

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.

Those Who Take Risks Walk The High Wire With No Fear Of Falling.

Recognize And Respect Mutual Self-interests, Then Build Creative Collaborations To Serve Them.

Creative Collaboration

The First Job Of A Leader Is To Define A Vision For The Organization...the Capacity To Translate Vision Into Reality.

Expect The Best From Your People And They Will Usually Deliver But Your Expectations Must Be Realistic.

In The Face Of Ambiguity, Uncertainty, And Conflicting Demands, Often Under Great Time Pressure, Leaders Must Make Decisions And Take Effective Actions To Assure The Survival And Success Of Their Organizations. This Is How Leaders Add Value To Their Organizations. They Lead Them To Success By Exercising Good Judgment, By Making Smart Calls When Especially Difficult And Complicated Decisions Simply Must Be Made, And Then Ensuring That They Are Well Executed.

All Great Leaders Constantly Seek New Information And New Ways Of Thinking.

Make Sure You Have Someone In Your Life From Whom You Can Get Reflective Feedback.

Think Of Successful Creative Collaborations Are Dreams With Deadlines.

The Future Has No Shelf Life

Great Things Are Accomplished By Talented People Who Believe They Will Accomplish Them.

Followers Who Tell The Truth, And Leaders Who Listen To It, Are An Unbeatable Combination.

Telling The Truth

Learning To Be An Effective Leader Is No Different Than Learning To Be An Effective Person. And That's The Hard Part

I Am Reminded How Hollow The Label Of Leadership Sometimes Is And How Heroic Followership Can Be.

Organizations Have To Come To Grips With The Fact That Tests Of Adaptive Capability Aren't Always Pleasant. Learning Can Be A Powerful Emotional Event, And Organizations Have To Be Cognizant Of That. They Must Understand That Those Who Complete High-quality Executive Education Programs Are Going To See The Organization With Fresh Eyes After They Return. Those Who Re-enter The Workplace Filled With New Enthusiasm And New Ideas Often Find A Chilly Response On The Part Of Their Supervisors.

It Is The Capacity To Develop And Improve Their Skills That Distinguishes Leaders From Followers.

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.

Great Groups Need To Know That The Person At The Top Will Fight Like A Tiger For Them.

Don't Over-react To The Trouble Makers.

Leaders Are People Who Believe So Passionately That They Can Seduce Other People Into Sharing Their Dream.

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Great Groups Give The Lie To The Remarkably Persistent But Incorrect Notion That Successful Organizations Are The Lengthened Shadow Of A Great Woman Or Man. However, Each Great Group Has A Strong Leader. In Fact, Great Groups And Great Leaders Create Each Other.

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Great Groups Deliver Great Results. And For Everyone Involved In A Great Group, Great Work Is Its Own Reward.

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We Have More Information Now Than We Can Use, And Less Knowledge And Understanding Than We Need. Indeed, We Seem To Collect Information Because We Have The Ability To Do So, But We Are So Busy Collecting It That We Haven't Devised A Means Of Using It. The True Measure Of Any Society Is Not What It Knows But What It Does With What It Knows.

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Change Is Inevitable

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.

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.

Charisma Is The Result Of Effective Leadership, Not The Other Way Around.

Who Succeeds In Forming And Leading A Great Group? He Or She Is Almost Always A Pragmatic Dreamer. They Are People Who Get Things Done, But They Are People With Immortal Longings. Often, They Are Scientifically Minded People With Poetry In Their Souls.

You Need People Who Can Walk Their Companies Into The Future Rather Than Back Them Into The Future.

To Become A Leader, Then, You Must Become Yourself, Become The Maker Of Your Own Life

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.

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.

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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.

If Great Teams Don't Have An "enemy," They Create One For Themselves Because, As Former Coca-cola Ceo Roberto Goizueta Pointed Out, "you Can't Have A War Without One."

Leaders Wonder About Everything, Want To Learn As Much As They Can, Are Willing To Take Risks, Experiment, Try New Things. They Do Not Worry About Failure But Embrace Errors, Knowing They Will Learn From Them.

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