Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis asserts that: in order to lead you must win people's trust; the characteristic essential to winning trust is integrity; and the foundation of integrity is adherence to a strong and clearly defined ethical code. Bennis also says that leaders must be committed to proactively stimulating and orchestrating change.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis explores the importance of learning to leaders, and distinguishes among three types of learning: shock, maintenance, and innovative. He goes on to demonstrate the value of (1) looking back at your childhood and adolescence and using your experiences to make things happen in the present; (2) consciously seeking the kinds of experiences that will improve and enlarge you; (3) taking risks as a matter of course, with the knowledge that failure is as vital as it is inevitable; (4) seeing the future as an opportunity to do things that need to be done, rather than as a trial or a test.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group) is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis says true leaders are not born but made, and usually self-made. He studies examples from recent US history; goes on to distinguish leadership from management; and explores the critical process of self-invention (including self-reinvention).

If there's one thing that the past decade's business disasters should teach us, it's that we need to stop evaluating corporate leaders simply on the basis of how much wealth they create for investors. A healthier yardstick would be this: the extent to which leaders create firms that are economically, ethically, and socially sustainable. The first step toward accomplishing that task is to create a culture of candor. Companies can't innovate, respond to stakeholder needs, or run efficiently unless the people inside them have access to timely, relevant information, point out professors O'Toole, of the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business, and Bennis, of the University of Southern California. Increasing transparency can be an uphill battle against human nature, however. The obstacles are numerous: macho executives who don't listen to their subordinates or punish them for bringing bad news; leaders who believe that information is power and hoard it; groupthink among team members who don't know how to disagree; boards that fail to question charismatic CEOs. Nevertheless, leaders can take steps to nurture transparency. By being open and candid, admitting their errors, encouraging employees to speak truth to power, and rewarding contrarians, executives can model the kind of conduct they want to see. Training employees to handle unpleasant conversations with grace also will break down barriers to honest communication. To avoid being blinded by biases, leaders can diversify their sources of information - an obvious measure that's rarely taken. Perhaps the biggest lever for cultural change is the executive selection process - choosing leaders for their transparent behavior, not just their ability to compete. And a few companies have even gone so far as to share all relevant information with every employee.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group) is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis establishes that the critical activity of self-invention which characterizes all leaders begins with self-knowledge. He then explores four basic lessons of self-knowledge: (1) You are your own best teacher. (2) Accept responsibility. (3) You can learn anything you want to learn. (4) True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience. He goes on to examine how leaders are influenced by their backgrounds but not ultimately controlled by them.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. Bennis evaluates the George W. Bush administration, examines the 2008 presidential campaign, and suggests changes that the Obama administration must pursue.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis describes "ten personal and organizational characteristics for coping with change, forging a new future, and creating learning organizations."

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis lays out three kinds of "sweeping and profound" changes occurring in western societies, rooted in (1) technology, (2) global interdependence, and (3) shifting demographics, including an aging population and dramatic changes in ethnic diversity. This latest tide of change is transforming organizations, and the key to a healthy transformation is "the organization's attitude toward its workers." The most successful organizations will create a culture that develops leaders at all organizational levels; Bennis gives numerous examples of how this can be achieved.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis examines the ongoing development of a leader's skills and abilities through change, and especially under adversity. The true leader endlessly enriches his worldview by learning from difficult people, challenging organizational obstacles, and experiencing failure.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis argues that "letting the self emerge is the essential task for leaders." He offers lessons on the importance of reflecting deeply on personal experience and constantly striving to acquire new perspectives. He presents four "tests" through which individuals build capabilities and focus on self-fulfillment. And he goes on to discuss desire, or the passion for life; the pursuit of mastery; and the value of strategic thinking.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis discusses "whole-brain thinking," which he believes is a necessary capability of top executives and which includes creativity, impulse, and instinct as well as more "scientific" analytical skills.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group) is substantially updated from the original. This chapter introduces Bennis's vision of today's world, with an emphasis on US business institutions. He describes a four-step process that can lead a person to "master the context" of his or her environment: (1) becoming self-expressive; (2) listening to the inner voice; (3) learning from the right mentors; and (4) giving oneself over to a guiding vision.

According to the traditional view, judgment is an event: You make a decision and then move on. Yet Tichy, of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, and Bennis, of the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, found that good leadership judgment occurs not in a single moment but throughout a process. From their research into the complex phenomenon of leadership judgment, the authors also found that most important judgment calls reside in one of three domains: people, strategy, and crisis. Understanding the essence of leadership judgment is crucial. A leader's calls determine an organization's success or failure and deliver the verdict on his or her career. The first phase of the judgment process is preparation--identifying and framing the issue that demands a decision and aligning and mobilizing key stakeholders. Second is the call itself. And third is acting on the call, learning and adjusting along the way. Good leaders use a "story line"--an articulation of a company's identity, direction, and values--to inform their actions throughout the judgment process. Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, for instance, focused on a story line of Boeing as a world-class competitor and ethical leader to make a judgment call that launched the company's recovery from a string of ethical crises. Good leaders also take advantage of "redo loops" throughout the process, reconsidering the parameters of the decision, relabeling the problem, and redefining the goal in a way that more and more people can accept. Procter & Gamble's A.G. Lafley and Best Buy's Brad Anderson have both used redo loops--in preparation and execution, respectively--to strengthen not only support for their calls but also the outcomes.

This month, all of Harvard Business Review's Forethought contributions address avian influenza, its potential to become a pandemic, and the red flags this possibility raises for businesses. Jeffrey Staples warns that the H5N1 strain of the avian flu represents a new class of global threat and urges companies to plan accordingly. Scott F. Dowell and Joseph S. Bresee show how mutations of the virus could boost its ability to spread from person to person. If a human pandemic does strike, Nitin Nohria explains, the most adaptive organizations have the best chance of surviving. Warren G. Bennis says that such times call for a leader who can articulate the common threat and inspire people to overcome it together. Baruch Fischhoff, too, emphasizes the importance of risk communication, warning that managers who dismiss it may endanger the people they're responsible for and force stakeholders to look elsewhere for information. Fischhoff also demonstrates, in another article, how managers can map out their companies' vulnerabilities. Larry Brilliant tells us what people worldwide can expect from their governments. Peter Susser views the threat of a pandemic from a legal perspective, examining several HR-related issues businesses could face. Sherry Cooper points out the social and economic lessons we should have learned from Toronto's 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. William MacGowan explains how Sun Microsystems is building a continuity plan to keep its global workforce healthy in the event of a pandemic. Wendy Dobson and Brian R. Golden caution that if a pandemic begins in China, as many scientists expect, the global impact will be immediate because China is so integral to the world economy. HBR also provides pandemic planning guidelines adapted from a checklist compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as a list of recommended avian flu resources.

Business schools are facing intense criticism for failing to impart useful skills, prepare leaders, instill norms of ethical behavior, and even lead graduates to good corporate jobs. These criticisms come not just from students, employers, and the media but also from deans of some of America's most prestigious B schools. The root cause of today's crisis in management education, assert Warren G. Bennis and James O'Toole, is that business schools have adopted an inappropriate--and ultimately self-defeating--model of academic excellence. Instead of measuring themselves in terms of the competence of their graduates, or by how well their faculty members understand important drivers of business performance, they assess themselves almost solely by the rigor of their scientific research. This scientific model is predicated on the faulty assumption that business is an academic discipline like chemistry or geology when, in fact, business is a profession and business schools are professional schools--or should be. Business school deans may claim that their schools remain focused on practice, but they nevertheless hire and promote research-oriented professors who haven't spent time working in companies and are more comfortable teaching methodology than messy, multidisciplinary issues--the very stuff of management. To regain relevancy, the authors say, business schools must rediscover the practice of business and find a way to balance the dual mission of educating practitioners and creating knowledge through research.

Leaders go through many transitions in their careers. Each brings new crises and challenges that are predictable. Knowing what to expect can help you get through and perhaps emerge stronger. In this engaging article, Warren G. Bennis, professor and founding chairman of the University of Southern California's Leadership Institute, reflects on leadership, recounting his own experiences as a young lieutenant in the infantry in World War II, as the new president of a university, and as the mentor to a unique nursing student. Bennis also describes the experiences of other leaders he has known throughout his career. Drawing on more than 50 years of academic research and business expertise--and borrowing from Shakespeare's seven ages of man--Bennis says the leader's life unfolds in seven stages. "The infant executive" seeks to recruit a mentor for guidance. "The schoolboy" must learn how to do the job in public. "The lover with a woeful ballad" struggles with the tsunami of problems every organization presents. "The bearded soldier" must be willing to hire people better than he is, because he knows that talented underlings can help him shine. "The general" must become adept at allowing people to speak the truth and being able to hear what they are saying. "The statesman" is hard at work preparing to pass on wisdom in the interests of the organization. And, finally, "the sage" embraces the role of mentor to young executives.

If you want to understand how much business has changed in the past 50 years, set Alfred P. Sloan's 1963 classic, My Years with General Motors, beside Jack Welch's current bestseller, Jack: Straight from the Gut. Proper, reserved, more Brahmin than baron, Mr. Sloan (never "Al") managed to conceal one of the most creative minds of the first half of the twentieth century beneath a quiet belief in painstaking consensus building. Brash and audacious, a guy's guy, everywhere in the press, Jack (never "Mr. Welch") is the embodiment of the CEO as icon--the epitome of individual star power. But for all their differences, the two are both, essentially, organization men. Sloan invented the concept of the modern corporation; Welch made it work. The question when it comes to Welch is, "How did he do it?" Was it through his oft-publicized strategy of selecting, trusting, and funding the right people and then setting them afloat in a sea of ideas? Or was it through the force of his personality--his preternatural passion, his total dedication to the organization to the exclusion of any private pursuits? In the answer lie the seeds of Welch's legacy. The next generation of CEOs will be quick to emulate the strategy, but not the monomaniacal passion. Nor should they. Tomorrow's leaders, operating in more uncertain times, should seek breadth in their perspectives, openness in their thinking, and roundness in their lives.

A disturbing trend is going on in corporate America--CEO churning. Top executives are rapidly coming and going, keeping their jobs for increasingly shorter periods of time. The reason? Most boards are so unclear about the definition of leadership, they are picking the wrong people. CEO churning needn't be, say leadership experts Warren Bennis and James O'Toole. Boards can reverse the trend by following several guidelines. First, boards must come to a shared, accurate definition of leadership. Simply put, leaders must be able to move human hearts--to challenge people and make them want to scale steep peaks. Second, boards should strengthen the CEO selection process by resolving strategic and political conflicts amongst themselves. An agreed-upon strategic direction will make choosing the CEO with the right vision for the company that much easier and can clarify the job for the new CEO. Third, the board needs to measure every CEO candidate's soft qualities. Economic measures are important, but integrity, the ability to provide meaning, and the talent for creating other leaders are critical. Fourth, boards should beware of candidates who act like CEOs. Charisma and glossy pitches can be enticing, but they're rarely the stuff of true leadership. Fifth, boards should accept that real leaders will more than likely overturn the status quo. Sixth, boards need to know that insider heirs usually aren't apparent, and finally, boards should always avoid making a hasty decision. Hiring the right CEO is a slow process at best. Ultimately, the surest way for boards to pick the right CEO is to cultivate and nurture talent in the making.

In this double-barreled review, two leading authors present different but complementary theories of leadership. Warren Bennis reviews Howard Gardner's Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, predicting that it will become a classic text on leadership. Harry Levinson presents us with "The Leader as Analyst," a review of Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries's Life and Death in the Executive Fast Lane.