Bennis: Leadership Guru

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From the BUSINESS section: Bennis: Leadership Guru

Warren Bennis

When discussing leadership, a topic that has come up (surgir) quite often in the Business section recently, one man that deserves special mention in Warren Bennis. He studied group dynamics in the 1950s and has worked in organizational development.

He’s also a big fan of Douglas McGregor and his approach to motivation: Theory X and Theory Y.

By the way, which theory applies to you?

Theory X says that, as workers, we’re all lazy and we’d avoid working if we could. This theory assumes that the average person is relatively unambitious and wants security above all else (ante todo).

Theory Y says that people usually accept and look for responsibility and manage themselves when trying to reach organizational objectives - without the threat of punishment.

…Back to Mr. Bennis…

When commenting on how leaders are different from managers, Bennis coined (acuñó) the phrase:

“Managers do things right, leaders do the right thing.”

Warren Bennis became best known for a book he co-wrote in 1985 with Burt Nanus, called Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge.

After studying 90 leaders in the United States -including an orchestra conductor, a basketball player and a tightrope walker (funambulista)- he presented 4 common factors shared by all of them:

- Attention through vision. They all had a strong vision and attracted others to help attain it.

- Meaning through communication. They all were good at communicating. Some drew pictures and others used metaphors.

- Trust through positioning. By demonstrating how goals are achieved, they were good at establishing trust.

- Positive self-regard. They tended to have a positive view of themselves and therefore were able to instill (inculcar) confidence in others.

Published by: Drew Crosby