Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization

by Warren Bennis, Robert C. Townsend

Leadership for the 21st Century

The demands of today's workplace call for stronger and more inspiring leadership in order to motivate employees and to achieve the quality results for which successful organizations constantly strive.

In Reinventing Leadership, Warren G. Bennis and Robert Townsend show leaders how to empower their organizations and bring the best out of each employee.

Inside you will find useful leadership strategies that include:


Moving away from conventional standards of business practice Building trust How to find a mentor Rewarding accomplishment
These strategies will help transform leadership visions into reality and lead organizations into a future that includes increased employee satisfaction and continued economic growth.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Warren Gamaliel Bennis is an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership Studies. Bennis is University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California.

“His work at MIT in the 1960s on group behavior foreshadowed -- and helped bring about -- today's headlong plunge into less hierarchical, more democratic and adaptive institutions, private and public,” management expert Tom Peters wrote in 1993 in the foreword to Bennis’ An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change.

Management expert James O’Toole, in a 2005 issue of Compass, published by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, claimed that Bennis developed “an interest in a then-nonexistent field that he would ultimately make his own -- leadership -- with the publication of his ‘Revisionist Theory of Leadership’ in Harvard Business Review in 1961.” O’Toole observed that Bennis challenged the prevailing wisdom by showing that humanistic, democratic-style leaders better suited to dealing with the complexity and change that characterize the leadership environment.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between COP and ACE, finding a best-fit position for your organisation is what I think matters most. Yes, the era of command-and-control leadership paradigm is fast becoming outmoded while Technology on the other hand (with its tendency to make obsolete acquired knowledge and skillsets within a very short period) has unleashed on us the forces of uncertainty and an inexorable collaborative leadership paradigm. Its however pertinent to note that some organisations (especially military & religious) can't outrightly jettison the command-and-control paradigm. This is where there is need for balance between the two paradigms.
Warren brings the wisdom of a "Gamaliel" to the discuss & got my mind perturbed a great deal: "Who are you and what are you doing here?" are the two questions that every aspiring leader must answer daily. Same questions still reverberating within me.
The 21 days plan is a must do!

[James Pritchert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago. At the time is was relevant to my job and I was able to apply what I read to my position at that time.

[Alissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This brief book was on a recommended reading list about leadership. It’s an oldie (1995) but a goodie.

The brief chapters (creating a trusting organization, empowerment, guiding vision, etc.) feature a question posed and then a dialogue between Bennis and Townsend with their insights on the particular topic. At the end of each section are questions to use as dialogue starters and for further self-reflection.

This is the type of leadership book I like, because it mixes the theoritical discussion with practical steps to move you forward as a leader.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book that all but dictates a dialog between Bennis and Townsend. Kind'a lame. They're both bright and have much to offer, but the medium/mechanism is awkward and shallow.

It was fun to see in writing how they talk off-the-cuff.

[Tammy]

Reading for the Nebraska Library Leadership Institute

[James Pritchert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad read but not especially to my liking.

[Scott Childers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very concise overview of some leadership theories. I found the conversational style appealing and a quick, easy to digest read.