Warren Bennis, a tower of leadership

Warren Bennis, one of the premier thinkers on leadership passed away this month. I remember reading, “On Becoming a Leader” almost 25 years ago and his words still resonate today. Bennis said, “The leader wonders about everything, wants to learn as much as he can, is willing to take risks, experiment, try new things. He does not worry about failure but embraces errors, knowing he will learn from them.”

Bennis was talking about managers and leaders having courage, a willingness to fail as a  steppingstone to improvement. He believed in leadership, and he believed in the future leaders of our world and our economy. He counseled presidents, CEO’s and students.  He was an optimist who saw improvement as the goal and was unwilling to accept mediocrity. He had faith in the next generation of leaders and he will be missed.