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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.

Warren G. Bennis

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Warren G. Bennis
Thought
Looked
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Men
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Control
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Seemed
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More quotes by Warren G. Bennis

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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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Recognize the skills and traits you don't possess, and hire the people who have them.
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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.
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Make sure you have someone in your life from whom you can get reflective feedback.
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Leaders must earn the trust of their teams, their organizations, and their stakeholders before attempting to engage their support.
Warren G. Bennis
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Servant leadership teaches us that you have to lay your cards on the table.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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Great leaders love talent and know where to find it. They surround themselves with talented people who can work effectively together.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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Listening to the inner voice - trusting the inner voice - is one of the most important lessons of leadership.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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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.
Warren G. Bennis
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The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born.
Warren G. Bennis
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Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
Warren G. Bennis
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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
Warren G. Bennis
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Successful leaders are great askers
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The learning person looks forward to failure or mistakes. The worst problem in leadership is basically early success.
Warren G. Bennis