Warren Bennis quotes

Warren Bennis was an American scholar, organizational consultant, and author widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of leadership studies. His influential work helped shape modern understanding of leadership, emphasizing authenticity and emotional intelligence. He inspired generations of leaders and is remembered as a foundational figure in leadership development. Here are 46 of his quotes:

The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Warren Bennis

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.

Warren Bennis

Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.

Warren Bennis

Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.

Warren Bennis

Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.

Warren Bennis

Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life, which is the sine qua non in becoming an integrated person.

Warren Bennis

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.

Warren Bennis

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.

Warren Bennis

The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.

Warren Bennis

A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless... someone's got to make a wake up call.

Warren Bennis

You need people who can walk their companies into the future rather than back them into the future.

Warren Bennis

Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.

Warren Bennis

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

Warren Bennis

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

Warren Bennis

Leaders keep their eyes on the horizon, not just on the bottom line.

Warren Bennis

There is a profound difference between information and meaning.

Warren Bennis

Find the appropriate balance of competing claims by various groups of stakeholders. All claims deserve consideration but some claims are more important than others.

Warren Bennis

Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.

Warren Bennis

Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.

Warren Bennis

The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

Warren Bennis

We have more information now than we can use, and less knowledge and understanding than we need. Indeed, we seem to collect information because we have the ability to do so, but we are so busy collecting it that we haven't devised a means of using it. The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows.

Warren Bennis

People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.

Warren Bennis