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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.

Warren G. Bennis

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Warren G. Bennis
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More quotes by Warren G. Bennis

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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.
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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
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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.
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Great things are achieved by talented people who are absolutely convinced that they not only can but will achieve them.
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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.
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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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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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Leadership is like beauty - it's hard to define but you know it when you see it.
Warren G. Bennis
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Trust is difficult to define, but we know when it's present and when it's not.
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The manager administers the leader innovates.
Warren G. Bennis
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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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Successful leadership is not about being tough or soft, sensitive or assertive, but about a set of attributes. First and foremost is character
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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
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The manager has his eye on the bottom line the leader has his eye on the horizon.
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Every great group is an island... but an island with a bridge to the mainland.
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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.
Warren G. Bennis