leaders and managers

About the Athour


“Warren bennis is a master practioner,researcher,and theoretician all in one –has managed to create a practical primer for leaders without sacrificing an iota of necessary subtlety complexity.No topic is more important ,no more able and caring person has attacted it.”


By Tom peters author in search of………



“Warren gets to the heart of leadership,to the essence of integrity,authenticity,and vision that never be pinned down to a manipulative formula .this book can help any of us select the new leaders so urgently we can need in nation right now.”

by Betty friedan

“A manual and morale-booster for propective leaders.”


By brain and mind bulletien


“An important series of insights into the qualities which make for successful,
Long lasting leadership abilities.”


The Midwest book rewiew







Summary per chapter:

1 Mastering the Context
this is a chapter in which, description of the world that we face today is given. It is a world changing at a furious pace. It is a world of increasing cultural inadequacy - the focus on the short term at the expense of national purpose, and the increasing inability of our educational institutions to prepare people for leadership positions. This is the context that must be mastered by those who would be leaders.
After setting this stage, and before presenting his 28 case studies of people who have mastered the context, Bennis gives a compelling case study of a leadership failure. This is the case of "Ed" described in the section Surrendering to the Context. He then sets the tone for the rest of the book by recounting the first case of leadership as mastering the context.

2 Understanding the Basics
This chapter states some basic attributes of leadership. It includes a very provocative discussion of the differences between "leaders" and "managers".

3 Knowing Yourself
This short chapter deals with the theme of "knowing oneself". Indeed his leadership consensus acknowledges up front that "no one can teach you how to become yourself, to take charge, to express yourself, except you." Nevertheless, Bennis helps us in this task by organizing the process into lessons of self-knowledge.




4 Knowing the World
In this chapter, Bennis attacks the problem of diminishing cultural awareness and how it impedes the emergence of leadership. This chapter also includes a discussion on the role of friends and mentors in shaping and enhancing cultural awareness, and a discussion on learning from adversity.

5 Operating on Instinct
A compelling discussion of the need to see beyond current paradigms even as you drive day-to-day operations under these same paradigms.

6 Deploying Yourself: Strike Hard, Try Everything
Fully expressing yourself is a basic theme of leadership developed throughout the book. This chapter is effectively a self-assessment test for achieving full self expression in your environment.

7 Moving Through Chaos
This chapter discusses learning from experience, especially adverse experience, and the transformation of experience into wisdom. There are numerous anecdotal examples of learning and improving from failure and adversity.





8 Getting People on Your Side
The crucial role of followers and constituents in making a successful leader is examined in this chapter. A leader's obligation to understand the culture in which he or she operates - and will likely attempt to change -- is emphasized. The importance of vision and integrity in attracting and keeping followers is discussed.

9 Organizations Can Help - or Hinder
The forces of change are categorized and examined. Successful organizations must have certain characteristics in order to survive and thrive in the face of constant change. The tasks that leaders must take on in order to develop these organizational characteristics are discussed. Organizations can both impede and encourage the process of change; the means for both are discussed.

10 Forging the Future
The ten leadership factors for thriving on change and ambiguity are given in this chapter. Though re-summarizing some of the key cultural impediments to leadership, still Bennis closes on the optimistic note that each of us has the means to shape our future rather than be shaped by it. And one of the quotes that is quite impressive is:
In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.



Ten lines from the book:


 Leaders encourage reflective back talk

 "The greatest opportunity for growth lies in overcoming the things you're afraid of".


 Unless the leader continues to evolve, to adapt and adjust to external change
the organisation will sooner or later stall".

 "Leaders know the importance of having someone in their life who tells them the truth".
 "If you're strong, you can learn from bad bosses, but if you're not strong it's tough".
 "A real essential for effective leadership is that you can force people to do very much"
 Bennis on the 4 ingredients leaders have that generate and sustain trust:
1. Constancy 2. Congruity 3. Reliability 4. Integrity
 “Only a handful of organisations have even begun to tap into their primary resource, their people, much less given them the means to do what they are capable of doing. Indeed, many have taken the opposite tack, eschewing loyalty to workers, pruning rather than nurturing, and focusing almost exclusively on the bottom line".
 “One of the biggest mistakes a person can make is to put a team together that reflects only him"."The real role of the leader is to figure out how to make diverse people and elements work together".



Leadership n Management
Every profession has leaders. In a formal sense, the elected officers of a professional society are the leaders of that profession. Because a profession is fundamentally about knowledge, however, the true leaders of a profession are the thought leaders: the individuals who make the thinking of the profession's members and provide directions for the future. leaders prefer to lead through writing and speaking, cutting-edge projects, conference organizing, and dialogue. Leadership means both talking and listening, both vision and consensus. A leader builds a web of relationships within the profession and articulates the themes that are emerging in the thinking of the profession as a whole .


In management:
It helps to motivate the top level corporate managers to raise their level of preparedness to meet global business challenges.
A good leader is one who searches for challenging opportunities and experiments to take risks, and, while managing any department or organization above qualities are required the most.
Leadership quality enables one to take decisions which is gain a feature of management.
Bringing together as a team ,a manager must have leadership existence.







Conclusion
A highly acclaimed work on the paradigm of leadership. This book distills a set of lessons from the experiences of 28 diverse cases of successful leadership. It is for a wide spectrum of people, as we know that all of us are involved in the leadership process either as leaders or followers or both. Leadership is important and useful aspect in everybody’slife.
On becoming a leader is based on the assumption that leaders are people who are able to express themselves fully.The key to full expression is understanding one’s self and the world ,and experience.