Warren Bennis Quotes

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. The public does not fully understand the world into which it is going. Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision. Those leaders who do not are ultimately judged failures, even though they may be popular at the moment.

The key to leadership is having a vision, and being strong enough to say no and not try to please everybody. Thats a recipe for failure. Leadership is practiced through attitude and actions, rather than words and memos.

We are known in a depth of darkness through which we ourselves do not even dare to look. And at the same time, we are seen in a height of a fullness which surpasses our highest vision.

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.

Pride comes from not knowing yourself and the world. The older you grow, and the more you see, the less reason you will find for being proud. Ignorance and inexperience are the pedestal of pride; once the pedestal is removed - pride will soon come down.

Leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness.

Nothing that matters in this world happens unless leaders lead it.

Great leaders must have two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate that vision clearly.

The real test of leadership isn't where you start out. It's where you end up.

When you know your not going to die, you have to ask yourself... What's the highest and best use for myself.

Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom.

How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.

Look round the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue!

Leadership is different from management, but not for the reasons most people think.

Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength.

the truth of who we are is innate goodness, and the whole journey is really about removing any obstacle or false belief that keeps us from knowing that

True progress comes not through action, but through awakening.

In knowing ourselves to be unique, we possess the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then!

Thrown into the atmosphere of action [in 1954], I suddenly understood the kind of neurosis that dominated all my previous work. I had not been able to recognize it before: I was inside. Simone de Beauvoir had guessed these reasons before I did.

We are aspects of Divinity, in the process of knowing ourselves experientially.

Self knowledge is best learned not by contemplation, but by action.

Without knowing yourself, there is no peace.

It's whether they have a vision and whether they're able to communicate it. The best director is just someone who gets over-excited about doing it - they don't even have to know much about camera or acting.

God didn't make you a leader to respond to stuff all day. He made you a leader to move things forward.

To know yourself you need not go to any book, to any priest, to any psychologist. The whole treasure is within yourself.