Warren's work on leadership is in his book 'Leaders', which he wrote with his colleague Burt Nanus in 1985. For this book he interviewed 90 leaders in America from business organizations and non-profit organizations.
It was encouraging to find that there is no one right way to lead, that we each have to find our own best style, but Warren did suggest some common characteristics or competencies:
- the Management of Attention - the need for a vision to focus minds
- the Management of Meaning - the need to communicate the vision
- the Management of Trust - the need to be consistent and honest
- the Management of Self - the need to be aware of one's weaknesses
Leaders also need to be strong enough to accept criticism when it is valid, to know when to change and when to plough on regardless.
In 'Organizing Genius' published in the nineties, Bennis examined great groups and concluded that evey great group needed:
- a shared dream
- members ready to sacrifice their personal egos for the dream
- young members prepared to work long hours
- protection from the 'suits'
Leaders constantly remind people of why their work is important, they create an atmosphere of trust so that people can disagree and argue but still work together, they encourage curiosity, experiment and risk-taking.
Finally, leaders create hope, because without hope it can be difficult to go on when everything seems to be going wrong.
After studying these great groups Bennis began to worry that he had concentrated too much on the role of the individual leader. Leadership, he now believes, is increasingly a shared task and he talks now of partnership rather than leadership.
Warren Bennis has devoted most of his life to the study of leaders of every description.
He's been an adviser to four presidents of the United States, including both Kennedy and Reagan, has written more than twenty books on the topic of leadership and lectured and consulted all over the world.
Most unusually, he's even practised what he preached. At the age of 42 he gave up a secure academic position at MIT to be an executive vice-president at the State University of New York in Buffalo and then spent seven years as president of the University of Cincinnati. This experience taught him a number of important things about leadership.
Bennis is now based at the University of Southern California where he is founder of the Universtity's Leadership Institute in Los Angeles.
Bennis has written approximately 30 books, many with co-authors. Here is a selection:
- 1974, Leaning Ivory Tower
- 1985, The Planning of Change
- 1992, Visionary Leadership: Creating a Compelling Sense of Direction for Your Organization (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)
- 1993, Beyond Bureaucracy: Essays on the Development and Evolution of Human Organization (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)
- 1993, The Unreality Industry: The Deliberate Manufacturing of Falsehood and What It Is Doing to Our Lives
- 1997, Beyond Counterfeit Leadership: How You Can Become a More Authentic Leader
- 1997, Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology (Developmental Management)
- 1997, Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration
- 1997, Why Leaders Can't Lead: The Unconscious Conspiracy Continues
- 1999, Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships
- 1999, Managing People is Like Herding Cats: Warren Bennis on Leadership
- 2000, Managing the Dream: Reflections on Leadership and Change
2002, Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders
- 2003, Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge
- 2005, Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization (Collins Business Essentials)
- 2008, Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor [TRANSPARENCY] [Hardcover]
co-authored with Dan Goleman and Jim O'Toole - 2009, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls
co-authored with Noel Tichy
- 2009, On Becoming a Leader
- 2010, Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership By Warren Bennis(A)/Erik Synnestvedt(N) [Audiobook]
co-authored with Patricia Ward Biederman
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