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Title: On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded
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Manufacturer: Basic Books
List Price: $17.50
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| On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded by Basic Books Nothing new here | | Maybe it's because this book has influenced so many others after it, but I didn't find anything new here. Leaders have different styles; they set strategic directions; they respond to chaos with clarity of mind. OK, but not much an aspiring leader can take away from it with. | | On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded by Basic Books Leaders Inspire Trust and Loyalty; Maximize Productivity | In my book, The Three Pillars of Sustainable Profit & Growth The Three Pillars of Sustainable Profit and Growth, I state that the best all-encompassing definition of leadership that I ever came across was from the book Leaders by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus: "The leaders have a positive self-regard called `emotional wisdom.' This is characterized by an ability to accept people as they are; a capacity to approach things only in terms of the present; an ability to treat everyone, even close contacts, with courteous attention; an ability to trust others even when this seems risky; and an ability to do without constant approval and recognition."
He follows-through with, and expands on this philosophy in On Becoming a Leader. Some of his concepts that I found most significant are:
Core Leadership Ingredients: A guiding vision; passion; integrity; trust, curiosity and daring.
The difference between "Leaders" and "Managers." He listed 12, and I found three particularly meaningful:
The manager asks how and when; the leader what and why
The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people
The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust
On adapting to changing market realities: "Unless the leader continues to evolve, to adapt and adjust to external change, the organization will sooner or later stall."
As I stress in my book, the key to employee productivity and loyalty is consistency and trust - hard to achieve, and once lost takes a long time to reestablish. I agree completely with Bennis on the four ingredients leaders must have in order to generate and sustain trust: Constancy, Congruity, Reliability, and Integrity.
| | On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded by Basic Books Good for Context, Poor for Content | I recommend this book solely on the merits of its influence. For decades, it has served as a core reference to the study of leadership. Staying power earns the book a place on my personal bibliography, but not an endorsement of its philosphy. Reading it has helped me appreciate many modern schools of thought on leadership, and for that purpose I found it beneficial.
There are gems of insight that punctuate the text, and occur most often when Mr. Bennis remains focused on the principles of leadership. Unfortunately, these gems are separated by lengthy discourse about the author's personal heroes--a collection of personalities sharing both ties with the Hollywood and the political left. With a mere tip of the hat to the issue of character, the author gushes an embarrassing level of flattery toward those who simply "broke the mold". This is most obvious in his discussions of Norman Lear, whom he praises for pushing the envelope of society morays and introducing taboo subject matter to television. The author's fascination with Lear seems due solely to his reputation as a moral renegade, with no ties to any other aspects of leadership. Mr. Bennis seems to recognize that his philosphy exalts strong leaders, but not necessarily good ones. There are halting caveats thrown in with references to Hitler et al, a weak denouncement of his destination from an author unwilling to abandon the road that got him there.
These oddly-fit vignettes serve to undermine the credibility of what I believe are generally pretty good philosophical observations. I found the discussion of self reflection particularly helpful and applicable, for example. If the book contained only these nuggets worth reading, it could easily fit in a tenth of the pages.
My advice: Read the book for context, and mine it for gems. Don't check your moral compass or sound reasoning at the door--Mr. Bennis will not provide those for you. | | On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded by Basic Books Self mastery and spiritual journey | "On Becoming a Leader" is best described as an in depth devotional that evokes reflection on leadership. This book, as other studies of leadership, cannot be considered a science because it is not falsifiable. Bennis does not present any data, in statistical or case study form, which demonstrated that his theory was of benefit to a significant number of the leaders he described a priori. His approach is to find successful leaders and describe, in hindsight, what made them great. He depends exclusively, and ad nausea, on quotes from existing leaders. For example, Bennis provides a particular quote by Boston prosecutor Jamie Raskin that, within itself, contains quotes from Napoleon and Machiavelli.
Two criticisms of "On Becoming a Leader" are the dated material and some of his revisionist political generalizations. Some anecdotal information is dated with references from the eighties, such as Morton Downey Jr. and references to Bill Cosby's too-good-to-be true television family, the Huxtables. He is also hard on all presidents after Nixon while being favorable to all founding fathers. He attributes the recent paucity of leadership at the presidential level to a leadership vacuum rather than the occurrence of Watergate with its subsequent increased scrutiny and skepticism of the chief executive position.
What makes "On Becoming a Leader" a worthy read is Bennis's emphasis on spiritual journey and self-mastery. A spiritual journey is the leader's ongoing examination of his inner world. The modern leader is not someone whose job is to oversee and manage - he or she will have to navigate an uncertain terrain with skill and finesse. Uncertainty requires the leader to commit to a life of spiritual journey. Despite a chaotic and unpredictable world, a true leader is able to finds direction by introspection. According to Bennis, "You must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and enjoy the process of becoming." A spiritual journey is highly dependent on two factors: self mastery and reflection on experiences. As a leader examines each of the areas of life, then the capacity to lead will be greater than the sum of the individual parts. Bennis explains:
"Leaders differ from others in their constant appetite for knowledge and experience, and as their worlds widen and become more complex, so too do their means of understanding."
Through evolving personal mastery a person can become exponentially self aware, and achieve both personal and interpersonal interconnectedness and synergy. The best preparation for becoming an effective leader is through on-the-job experiences and reflection on those experiences. For Bennis, one of the most effective ways to learn and grow is to benefit from your critical past mistakes. According to Bennis:
"Reflecting on experience is a means of having a Socratic dialogue with yourself, asking the right questions at the right time, in order to discover the truth of yourself and your life."
Bennis spends significant portion of the book discussing the need for leaders to have a liberal arts background. In quoting Jim Burke, Bennis provides this description of a philosopher-activist:
"Also, I've always felt that society lacks philosophers. We ought to have people who dedicate their lives just to thinking. We have plenty of economists, and we have all the sciences covered, but only a handful of thinkers. So maybe that makes me reflective. But I also think of myself as an activist."
This is in great contrast to the currently popular book "The World is Flat," where Thomas Friedman expects leaders with engineering backgrounds to have the advantage. Of course, that's the advantage of discussing a discipline that is unscientific and irrefutable. Everyone can have an opinion and no one is beyond the shadow of doubt.
Bennis's anecdotes are not predictions of overt behavior but quotes of nostalgia from past experience. There are no clear, intersubjectively shared lines of reasoning between the quotations, anecdotes and observations. Perhaps the case for leadership theory is always open to reconsideration and is therefore inherently ambiguous. Undoubtedly, Bennis has made some very provocative points, and should be commended on his accomplishment of compiling such a comprehensive evaluation of leadership. In addition, despite being outdated by 20 years, Bennis's influence on the field of leadership remains strong today. The legacy that "on Becoming a Leader" left behind is tremendous, and Bennis's work has furthered the field of leadership in an infinite number of ways. Clearly, "On Becoming a Leader" is an important tool in practice. It provides great insight into the inner workings of leadership and has resulted in the investigation and development further reflections on leadership.
| | On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded by Basic Books GREAT Leadership Book | Bennis discusses the importance of reflection as a tool for excellent leadership throughout his book On becoming a leader: The leadership classic (2003). I was particularly interested in his insight on reflection because it seems that few leaders have time to luxuriate in quiet time for reflection. After reading this book I see the importance of taking time to listen to one's inner voice. Bennis states that the most important lesson of leadership is learning to trust the inner voice (p. 28). He also states that reflection is one of the four lessons of self-knowledge (p. 50). To explain what reflection means to him, Bennis tells his readers to "think of reflection and perspective as two horns, with synthesis balanced between them. (p. 129)."
One benefit of reflection is that leaders become more self-aware and begin to separate who they are and where they want to go from where others want them to go (p. 48). This is important because in our roles as administrators we are expected to step in and fill certain responsibilities that have been filled by leaders before us. The faculty has certain ideas about how we should act and think. It would make administrator's lives easier at times if we allowed ourselves to morph into the mold that is set for us rather than blazing a new path. Bennis, however, explains that excellent leaders must be willing to take the path less traveled in order to effect positive change.
When reading this book I was concerned about methods of reflection. I was apprehensive and thought I would need to seek guidance on thoughtful and purposeful self-reflection. Bennis gave some direction by suggesting that leaders have a Socratic dialogue with oneself and ask questions about the nature of the issues we face (p. 54). He simplified the process of self-awareness by explaining that leaders have to ask questions that create an understanding of themselves (p. 55).
Bennis addressed the importance of reflection as a way to take in the "big picture" of situations that surround us. He used a quote from Socrates that says "The unexamined life is not worth living" and elaborates that one cannot live successfully unless they are able to reflect on situations and understand the "big picture" of their life (p. 62). I thought his statements regarding freeing oneself from past mistakes by using Socratic inquiry were powerful. As a leader it is inevitable that we will make mistakes. Bennis suggests that reflection is a tool that allows us to move past our mistakes and become free to take future risks without feeling an urge to prove ourselves (p. 70). He urges leaders to not allow their past to constrain them and keep them from reaching their full potential. Leaders must understand what has actually happened and in situations and try to learn from them instead of allowing them to paralyze them (p. 90).
My new understanding of reflection has helped me realize that I must try to learn from the past by taking time to digest and ponder situations. Reflection should not be something that a leader does on vacation or when a huge crisis has happened. Reflection should be a ritual in the life of a leader and a tool that one uses to gain understanding and knowledge.
| | On Becoming A Leader: The Leadership Classic--Updated And Expanded by Basic Books Product Description | With a new introduction by the authorWarren Bennis's formative years, in the 1930s and '40s, were characterized by severe economic hardship and a world war that showcased the extreme depths and heights to which leaders could drive their followers. Today's environment is similarly chaotic, turbulent, and uncertain. On Becoming a Leader has served for nearly fifteen years as a beacon of insight, delving into the qualities that define leadership, the people who exemplify it, and the strategies that anyone can apply to become an effective leader. This new edition features a provocative introduction on the challenges and opportunities facing leaders today, with additional updates and current references throughout. |
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