Background Image

...

The American Heritage Dictionary Defines Crucible As "a Place, Time, Or Situation Characterized By The Confluence Of Powerful Intellectual, Social, Economic, Or Political Forces; A Severe Test Of Patience Or Belief; A Vessel For Melting Material At High Temperatures." A Crucible Was The Vessel In Which Medieval Alchemists Attempted To Turn Base Metals Into Gold. That The Alchemists Inevitably Failed In Their Audacious Attempts Doesn't Denigrate The Power Of The Crucible As A Metaphor For The Circumstances That Cause An Individual To Be Utterly Transformed.

-Warren G. Bennis

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The American Heritage Dictionary

Warren G. Bennis

...

The American Heritage Dictionary Defines Crucible As "a Place, Time, Or Situation Characterized By The Confluence Of Powerful Intellectual, Social, Economic, Or Political Forces; A Severe Test Of Patience Or Belief; A Vessel For Melting Material At High Temperatures." A Crucible Was The Vessel In Which Medieval Alchemists Attempted To Turn Base Metals Into Gold. That The Alchemists Inevitably Failed In Their Audacious Attempts Doesn't Denigrate The Power Of The Crucible As A Metaphor For The Circumstances That Cause An Individual To Be Utterly Transformed.

Views: 4762

Topic

More From Warren G. Bennis

Trust Resides Squarely Between Faith And Doubt.

Faith And Doubt

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.

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.

Vision Animates, Inspires, Transforms Purpose Into Action.

The Crucible Is A Dividing Line, A Turning Point, And Those Who Have Gone Through It Feel They Are Very Different From The Way They Were Before. Believing That They Have Been Transformed Or Have Transformed Themselves, Those Who Survive The Crucible (and Many Don't) Are More Confident, More Willing To Take Future Risks. That New Self-confidence Is Grounded In The Belief That He Or She Has Done Something Hard And Done It Well.

Self Confidence

The Learning Person Looks Forward To Failure Or Mistakes. The Worst Problem In Leadership Is Basically Early Success.

Leading With Character Gives The Wise Leader Clear-cut Advantages. They Are Easier To Trust And Follow; They Honor Commitments And Promises; Their Words And Behavior Match; They Are Always Engaged In And By The World; They Are Open To "reflective Backtalk": They Can Speak With Conviction Because They Believe In What They Are Saying...and Everyone Else Knows That. They Are Comfortable In Their Own Skin. They Feel At Ease In The Spotlight And They Enjoy It There. They Tend To Be More Receptive To Opportunity And Risk.

Don't Over-react To The Trouble Makers.

Success In Management Requires Learning As Fast As The World Is Changing.

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

Perhaps The Central Task Of The Leader Of Leaders Thus Becomes The Development Of Other Leaders.

Coaching Will Become The Model For Leaders In The Future... I Am Certain That Leadership Can Be Learned And That Terrific Coaches... Facilitate Learning.

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.

The American Heritage Dictionary Defines Crucible As "a Place, Time, Or Situation Characterized By The Confluence Of Powerful Intellectual, Social, Economic, Or Political Forces; A Severe Test Of Patience Or Belief; A Vessel For Melting Material At High Temperatures." A Crucible Was The Vessel In Which Medieval Alchemists Attempted To Turn Base Metals Into Gold. That The Alchemists Inevitably Failed In Their Audacious Attempts Doesn't Denigrate The Power Of The Crucible As A Metaphor For The Circumstances That Cause An Individual To Be Utterly Transformed.

Leaders Should Always Expect The Very Best Of Those Around Them. They Know That People Can Change And Grow.

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

Taking Charge Of Your Own Learning Is A Part Of Taking Charge Of Your Life, Which Is The Sine Qua Non In Becoming An Integrated Person.

Excellence Is A Better Teacher Than Mediocrity.

Successful Leaders Are Great Askers

Successful Leadership Is Not About Being Tough Or Soft, Sensitive Or Assertive, But About A Set Of Attributes. First And Foremost Is Character

There Is A Profound Difference Between Information And Meaning.

Too Many Companies Believe People Are Interchangeable. Truly Gifted People Never Are. They Have Unique Talents. Such People Cannot Be Forced Into Roles They Are Not Suited For, Nor Should They Be. Effective Leaders Allow Great People To Do The Work They Were Born To Do.

This Duality, Making Yourself Better While Teaching And Developing Others' Judgment Capabilities, Is The Key To Leadership That Is Both Productive And Principled.

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.

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

This Is More Than Just Having A Vision. You Can See The Difference In The Often-cited Way In Which Steve Jobs Brought In John Sculley To Take Over Apple. At The Time, Sculley Was Destined To Be The Head Of Pepsico. The Clincher Came When Jobs Asked Him, "how Many More Years Of Your Life Do You Want To Spend Making Colored Water When You Can Have An Opportunity To Come Here And Change The World?"

Companies Which Get Misled By Their Own Success Are Sure To Be Blind Sided.

People Who Know What They Want And Why They Want It, And Have The Skills To Communicate That To Others In A Way That Gains Support

Good Leaders Make People Feel That They're At The Very Heart Of Things, Not At The Periphery. Everyone Feels That He Or She Makes A Difference To The Success Of The Organization. When That Happens People Feel Centered And That Gives Their Work Meaning.

Without Character, There Is No Credibility; And Without Credibility, There Is No Trust.

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

In Life, Change Is Inevitable. In Business, Change Is Vital.

Change Is Inevitable

Leaders Are People Who Do The Right Thing; Managers Are People Who Do Things Right.

The Manager Administers; The Leader Innovates. The Manager Has A Short-range View; The Leader Has A Long-range Perspective. The Manager Asks How And When; The Leader Asks What And Why. The Manager Has His Eye On The Bottom Line; The Leader Has His Eye On The Horizon. The Manager Accepts The Status Quo; The Leader Challenges It.

The Failure To Find The Right Niche For People - Or To Let Them Find Their Own Perfect Niches - Is A Major Reason That So Many Workplaces Are Mediocre, Even Toxic, In Spite Of The Presence Of Talent. Leaders Of Great Groups Give Them Whatever They Need And Free Them From Everything Else.

All Claims Deserve Consideration But Some Claims Are More Important Than Others.

Walt Disney, Of All People, Did A Good Job Of Describing His Own Netony. "people Who Have Worked With Me Say I Am 'innocence In Action,'" He Wrote. "they Say I Have The Innocence And Unselfconsciousness Of A Child. Maybe I Have. I Still Look At The World With Uncontaminated Wonder."

The Manager Has A Short-range View; The Leader Has A Long-range Perspective.

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.

Around The World, The Generals Are Being Ousted, And The Poets Are Taking Charge.

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

Creative Collaboration

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.

People Who Cannot Invent And Reinvent Themselves Must Be Content With Borrowed Postures, Secondhand Ideas, Fitting In Instead Of Standing Out.

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.

More Leaders Have Been Made By Accident, Circumstance, Sheer Grit, Or Will Than Have Been Made By All The Leadership Courses Put Together.

The Capacity For "uncontaminated Wonder," Ultimately, Is What Distinguishes The Successful From The Ordinary, The Happily Engaged Players Of Whatever Era From The Chronically Disappointed And Malcontent. Therein Lies A Lesson For Geeks, Geezers, And The Sea Of People Who Fall In Between.

Good Leaders Make People Feel That They're At The Very Heart Of Things, Not At The Periphery.

Just As No Great Painting Has Ever Been Created By A Committee, No Great Vision Has Ever Emerged From The Herd.

Think Of Successful Creative Collaborations Are Dreams With Deadlines.

The Basis Of Leadership Is The Capacity Of The Leader To Change The Mindset, The Framework Of The Other Person.

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."

We Must Move From ... The Primacy Of Technology Toward Considerations Of Social Justice And Equity, From The Dictates Of Organizational Convenience Toward The Aspirations Ofself Realization And Learning, From Authoritarianism And Dogmatism Toward More Participation, From Uniformity And Centralization Toward Diversity And Pluralism, From The Concept Of Work As Hard And Unavoidable, From Life As Nasty, Brutish, And Short Toward Work As Purpose And Self~fulfillment, A Recognition Of Leisure As A Valid Activity In Itself.

Keep Reminding People Of What's Important And That Their Fates Are Correlated.

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

Leaders Keep Their Eyes On The Horizon, Not Just On The Bottom Line.

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

A Leader Is Someone Whose Actions Have The Most Profound Consequences On Other People's Lives, For Better Or Worse, Sometime Forever And Ever.

People Vary Enormously In How They Learn. Some Learn Through Their Eyes - By Reading But Also By Responding To All Kinds Of Visual Information. Others Learn Mostly Through Their Ears Or Touch Or Other Senses.

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

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.

All Of Great Leaders Evidence Four Basic Qualities That Are Central To Their Ability To Lead: Adaptive Capacity, The Ability To Engage Others Through Shared Meaning, A Distinctive Voice, And Unshakeable Integrity. These Four Qualities Mark All Exemplary Leaders, Whatever Their Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Or Race.

The Most Dangerous Leadership Myth Is That Leaders Are Born.

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

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.

I Used To Think That Running An Organization Was Equivalent To Conducting A Symphony Orchestra. But I Don't Think That's Quite It; It's More Like Jazz. There Is More Improvisation.

Leadership Is The Capacity To Translate Vision Into Reality.

Judgment Without Character Is Expediency... Or Worse.

Organizations Should Try To Find Out If Their Learning Programs Actually Work.

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

The Future Has No Shelf Life

Recognize The Skills And Traits You Don't Possess, And Hire The People Who Have Them.

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.

A New Leader Has To Be Able To Change An Organization That Is Dreamless, Soulless And Visionless... Someone's Got To Make A Wake Up Call.

The Manager Asks How And When; The Leader Asks What And Why.

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.

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

Service Culture

Our Tendency To Create Heroes Rarely Jibes With The Reality That Most Nontrivial Problems Require Collective Solutions.

Every Great Group Is An Island... But An Island With A Bridge To The Mainland.

Servant Leadership Teaches Us That You Have To Lay Your Cards On The Table.

Cards On The Table

Servant Leadership

The Organizations Of The Future Will Increasingly Depend On The Creativity Of Their Members To Survive. Great Groups Offer A New Model In Which The Leader Is An Equal Among Titans. In A Truly Creative Collaboration, Work Is Pleasure, And The Only Rules And Procedures Are Those That Advance The Common Cause.

Creative Collaboration

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

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.

The Manager Has His Eye On The Bottom Line; The Leader Has His Eye On The Horizon.

Becoming A Leader Is Synonymous With Becoming Yourself. It Is Precisely That Simple, And It Is Also That Difficult.

The Leaders I Met, Whatever Walk Of Life They Were From, Whatever Institutions They Were Presiding Over, Always Referred Back To The Same Failure Something That Happened To Them That Was Personally Difficult, Even Traumatic, Something That Made Them Feel That Desperate Sense Of Hitting Bottom-as Something They Thought Was Almost A Necessity. It's As If At That Moment The Iron Entered Their Soul; That Moment Created The Resilience That Leaders Need.

Create A Compelling Vision, One That Takes People To A New Place, And Then Translate That Vision Into A Reality.

People In Great Groups Have Blinders On. Their Work Is All They See. They Value Failures As Learning Opportunities. They Are Optimistic, Not Realistic, As They Proceed From One Challenge And Crisis To The Next.

The Manager Does Things Right; The Leader Does The Right Thing.

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

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

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.

First And Foremost, Effective Leaders Must Continuously Strive To Make Themselves Smarter And Better At Making Judgments.

That's Nonsense; In Fact, The Opposite Is True. Leaders Are Made Rather Than Born.

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

Leaders Must Earn The Trust Of Their Teams, Their Organizations, And Their Stakeholders Before Attempting To Engage Their Support.

See The Long View: By All Means "plant The Corn, Milk The Cows, And Feed The Horses" But Always Keep The Eventual "harvest" In Mind.

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

Leaders Do Not Avoid, Repress, Or Deny Conflict, But Rather See It As An Opportunity

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

Telling The Truth

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.

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.

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 I Were To Give Off-the-cuff Advice To Anyone Trying To Institute Change, I Would Say, "how Clear Is The Metaphor?"

Understand The "pygmalion Effect": Leaders Should Always Expect The Very Best Of Those Around Them. They Know That People Can Change And Grow.

If I Had To Reduce The Responsibilities Of A Good Follower To A Single Rule, It Would Be To Speak Truth To Power.

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.

In Order To Serve Its Purpose, A Vision Has To Be A Shared Vision.

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

Leaders Must Encourage Their Organizations To Dance To Forms Of Music Yet To Be Heard.

Almost Without Exception, Members Of Great Groups See Themselves As Winning Underdogs, As A Feisty David Hurling Fresh Ideas At A Big, Backward-looking Goliath. They Always Have An "enemy."

The Leader Has A Clear Idea Of What He Wants To Do Professionally And Personally, And The Strength To Persist In The Face Of Setbacks, Even Failures

Great Leaders Love Talent And Know Where To Find It. They Surround Themselves With Talented People Who Can Work Effectively Together.

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

Leaders Are People Who Do The Right Thing: Managers Are People Who Do Things Right. Both Roles Are Crucial, But They Differ Profoundly. I Often Observe People In Top Positions Doing Wrong Things Well.

That's Important To Remember: It's Not Just A Collection Of Great Individuals But A Group Of People Who Enjoy Playing In The Sandbox, Thoroughly Enjoying Collaborative Problem Solving.

Innovation- Any New Idea-by Definition Will Not Be Accepted At First. It Takes Repeated Attempts, Endless Demonstrations, Monotonous Rehearsals Before Innovation Can Be Accepted And Internalized By An Organization. This Requires Courageous Patience.

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

I Wanted The Influence. In The End I Wasn't Very Good At Being A President. I Looked Out Of The Window And Thought That The Man Cutting The Lawn Actually Seemed To Have More Control Over What He Was Doing.

Possess The "nobel Factor": Possess And Constantly Demonstrate Optimism, Faith, And Hope. They Create Choices. I Am Reminded Of An Ancient Chinese Proverb: "that The Birds Of Worry And Care Fly Above Your Head, This You Cannot Change; But That They Build Nests In Your Hair, This You Can Prevent."

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

Leadership Is Like Beauty - It's Hard To Define But You Know It When You See It.

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.

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

The Manager Administers; The Leader Innovates.

Leadership Vs Management

Leaders Learn By Leading, And They Learn Bestby Leading In The Face Of Obstacles. As Weather Shapes Mountains, Problems Shape Leaders.

Trust Is The Emotional Glue That Binds Followers And Leaders Together.

Trust Is Difficult To Define, But We Know When It's Present And When It's Not.

Listening To The Inner Voice - Trusting The Inner Voice - Is One Of The Most Important Lessons Of Leadership.

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.

I Used To Think That Running An Organization Was Equivalent To Conducting A Symphony Orchestra. But I Don't Think That's Quite It; It's More Like Jazz. There Is More Improvisation. Someone Once Wrote That The Sound Of Surprise Is Jazz, And If There's Any One Thing That We Must Try To Get Used To In This World, It's Surprise And The Unexpected. Truly, We Are Living In World Where The Only Thing That's Constant Is Change.

Create Strategic Alliances And Partnerships: Now And In Years To Come, Shrewd Leaders Will Create Allegiances With Other Organizations Whose Fates Are Correlated With Their Own.

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.

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.

One Of The Worst Mistakes Is To Do Nothing.

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.

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

Frank Gehry Designs Buildings That Make Other Architects Half His Age (he's 78) Gasp With Envy. Neotony Is What Makes Him Lace Up His Skates And Whirl Around The Ice Rink, While Visionary Buildings Come To Life And Dance In His Head.

One Of The Qualities That All The Leaders Have Is A Voracious Appetite To Learn Whatever They Do Not As Yet Know And Understand, Coupled With An Openness To New Experiences.

New Experiences

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

Some Of The Strongest Resistance To Necessary Change Is The Result Of What Jim O'toole Has So Aptly Characterized As "the Ideology Of Comfort And The Tyranny Of Custom."

Necessary Change

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

What Job Is Worth The Enormous Psychic Cost Of Following A Leader Who Values Loyalty In The Narrowest Sense.

Manage The Dream: Create A Compelling Vision, One That Takes People To A New Place, And Then Translate That Vision Into A Reality.

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.

Neotony Is A Metaphor For The Quality Of Life - The Gift - That Keeps The Fortunate Of Whatever Age Focused On All The Marvelous Undiscovered Things To Come.

Power Is The Basic Energy Needed To Initiate And Sustain Action Or, To Put It Another Way, The Capacity To Translate Intention Into Reality And Sustain It. Leadership Is The Wise Use Of This Power: Transformative Leadership.

I'd Always Rather Err On The Side Of Openness. But There's A Difference Between Optimum And Maximum Openness, And Fixing That Boundary Is A Judgment Call. The Art Of Leadership Is Knowing How Much Information You're Going To Pass On - To Keep People Motivated And To Be As Honest, As Upfront, As You Can. But, Boy, There Really Are Limits To That.

Find The Appropriate Balance Of Competing Claims By Various Groups Of Stakeholders. All Claims Deserve Consideration But Some Claims Are More Important Than Others.

There Are Two Ways Of Being Creative. One Can Sing And Dance. Or One Can Create An Environment In Which Singers And Dancers Flourish.

The New Leader Is One Who Commits People To Action, Who Converts Followers Into Leaders, And Who May Convert Leaders Into Agents Of Change.

Effective Leaders Make A Full Commitment To Be A Learner, To Keep Increasing And Nourishing Their Knowledge And Wisdom.

Knowledge And Wisdom

In Great Groups, The Right People Always Have The Right Job.

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.

Embrace Error: Create An Atmosphere In Which Prudent Risk Taking Is Strongly Encouraged.

Understand The "gretzky Factor": Cultivate An Instinct, A "touch", Call It What You Will, That Enables You To Know Both Where The "puck" Is Now And Where It Will Be Soon.

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.

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.

No Leader Can Create Sustainable, Significant Change Without A Reservoir Of Good Will. Without That, You Always Tend To Compromise With Failure.

Significant Change

The Manager Accepts The Status Quo; The Leader Challenges It.

Failing Organizations Are Usually Over-managed And Under-led.

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

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.

A Passion For Continual Learning, A Refined, Discerning Ear For The Moral And Ethical Consequences Of Their Actions, And An Understanding Of The Purposes Of Work And Human Organisations

Trending Author

Category