I find Mr. Bennis' ideology rather liberal in nature and a bit objective. He does have a tendancy to "write with lists" and I like that. While he talks about leaders and leadership as one would have arrived at a point, or level, and having been crowned with the title (like a doctor or lawyer), I don't believe it is that black and white. In life, we are all influencing and leading. I see bad influencers every day, and they are leading.
So, having said that, I did enjoy the book and took lots of notes.
New Introduction
- A leader for the 21st century must 1. know that staying with the status quo is unacceptable, 2. create intellectual capital....you get the most out of people by empowering them, by supporting them, by getting out of their way, and 3. followers need from their leaders 3 basic qualities; 1. they want direction, 2. they want trust, and 3. they want hope.
- the trust factor will reign as the most pivotal factor of a leader's success
- using the metaphor of a tripod - leaders generate and sustain trust by 1. ambition, 2. competance, and 3. integrity - moral fabric
- for leaders and organizations to succeed, there are three basic ingredients; Ideas, Relationships, and Adventure
- Ideas are the basis change and intellectual capital
- Relationships have to do with outstanding people working in harmony and openness, where everyone feels empowered, where all members feel included and at the center of things, where they feel competent and significant.
- Adventure has to do with risk, with a bias toward action, with curiosity and courage.
- and the challenge of leadership is to create the social architecture where ideas, relationships, and adventure can flourish.
Introduction
- On Becoming a Leader is based on the assumption that leaders are people who are able to express themselves fully. By this I meand that they know who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to fuly deploy their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. They also know what they want, why they want it, andhow to communicate what they want to others, in order to gain their cooperation and support. Finally, they know how to achieve their goals.
- Becoming a leader isn't easy....but learning to lead is a lot easier than most of us think it is, because each of us contains the capacity for leadership.
- ...the process of becoming a leader is much the same as the process of becoming an integrated human geing.....life itself is the career.
- those I choose for this book were not only accomplished, but multitalented.....these leaders are by no means ordinary people....as diverse as they are in terms of backgrounds, age....they are in accord on two basic points; first, they all agree that leaders are made, not born, and made more by themselves than by any external means; second, they agree that no leader sets out to be a leader per se, but rather to express himself freely and fully. That is, leaders have no interest in proving themselves, but an abiding interest in expressing themselves. The difference is crucial, for it's the difference between being driven, as too many people are today, and leading, as too few people do.
- something else they have in common is that each of these individuals has continued to grow and develp throughout life.
- Because we are still questioning the assumptions, there are no theories. But the best information we have suggests that adults learn best when they take charge of their own learning.....taking charge of your life.
- We like to think that if someone has the right stuff, he or she will naturally rise to the top....but it isn't true.
- At bottom, becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It's precisely that simple, and it's also that difficult.
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