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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."

-Warren G. Bennis

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Walt Disney, Of All

Warren G. Bennis

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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."

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

Judgment Without Character Is Expediency... Or Worse.

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Change Is Inevitable

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

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Self Confidence

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Vision Animates, Inspires, Transforms Purpose Into Action.

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.

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

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

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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.

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

Excellence Is A Better Teacher Than Mediocrity.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Creative Collaboration

Don't Over-react To The Trouble Makers.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Significant Change

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

There Is A Profound Difference Between Information And Meaning.

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.

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.

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

The Future Has No Shelf Life

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.

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

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

Leadership Is The Capacity To Translate Vision Into Reality.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Successful Leaders Are Great Askers

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

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.

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