Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization (Collins Business Essentials) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Warren G. Bennis (Author), Robert Townsend (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005

In Reinventing Leadership, Bennis and Townsend discuss their concise leadership plan for the 21st century that reinvented leadership strategies and aims to empower both employees and organization. They focus on:

•moving away from conventional standards of business practice

•building trust

•finding a mentor to encourage reflective backtalk

•rewarding accomplishment

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Are organizations better controlled, guided and directed by leadership or by management? The title of this book gives the authors' answer. The distinction between leadership and management is presented in platitudes, e.g., "The manager maintains: the leader develops." Bennis (Why Leaders Can't Lead) and Townsend (Up the Organization) further state that militaristic, command-and-control leadership has become anachronistic, and that the current downsized, flat-management era requires a new leadership style. To help readers develop the desirable new leadership traits, "dialogue starters" are suggested at the end of each chapter. The book concludes with a 21-day plan to help readers apply the pithy principles. Perhaps some might benefit from such a plan, but readers should be as skeptical of that laudable goal as they would be of a big weight loss in so short a time.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The names on the cover virtually ensure this collection of conversations will appeal to the business crowd. Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader, and Townsend, who wrote Up the Organization, chat about the qualities that should characterize today's corporate leaders. The conversations, albeit witty and wise, reveal little that previous writings and prior authors haven't already explored. The appendix, a 21-day plan for becoming a more effective leader, is definitely no substitute for years of experience and introspection. But there are important messages shared here: the next century's emphasis on intellectual capital, the principle of empowerment, and the transformation of COP (control, order, and predict) into ACE (acknowledge, create, and empower), among others. Barbara Jacobs --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• ISBN-10: 0060820527
• ASIN: B000HWYPW0
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Warren Bennis (Los Angeles, CA), born in 1925, is an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, who is widely regarded as the pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership. He is University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the University of Southern California. In the past decade, he served as chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, working with David Gergen.
Bennis has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies and served as adviser to four U.S. presidents. He has served on the faculty of MIT's Sloan School of Management and was Chairman of the Organizational Studies Department. He is a former faculty member of Boston University, former Provost and Executive Vice President of State University of New York at Buffalo and President of the University of Cincinnati. His global experience includes teaching at the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, INSEAD, the London Business School, and IMEDE (now IMD). In 2007, Business Week called him one of ten business school professors who have had the greatest influence on business thinking. He has received 20 honorary degrees and has served on numerous boards of advisors.
Bennis has written or edited 30 books, which have been translated into 21 languages, and many articles on three of his passions-leadership, organizational change, and creative collaboration. The Financial Times recently named Leaders as one of the top 50 business books of all time.
Bennis is proud of the four years he served in the U.S. Army, 1943-1947. At the age of 19 he was one of the youngest infantry commanders in Germany and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. His dream remains: to write a terrific one-act play.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Change the World while Sustaining Stability, May 11, 2007

By 

J. Gresham "Jon, the CivilSociety and MultiSm... (Montgomery, AL usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization (Paperback)

Bennis and Townsend compiled here a great collection of pithy sayings and insights into how leaders make an impact through their influence, not because (only) of their position or status. This is a very useful work into the difference between leaders who change the world and managers who sustain stability. The two need each other, and here are a few favorite quotes:
--Leaders are people who do the right things and managers are people are who do things right. Leaders are interested in direction, visions, goals, objectives, intention, purpose, and effectiveness--the right things. Managers are interested in efficiency, the how-to, the day-to-day, the short run of doing things right.
--A manager tends to think of his people in terms of how much they cost and how little he can pay them. A leader tends to think of his people as resources and wonders how much they can earn and how he can help them become heroes.
--
The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
The manager has a short-term view; the leader has a long-term view.
The manager asks why and how; the leader asks what and why.
The manager has her eye on the bottom line; the leader has her eye on the horizon.
--"If you're going to have people connecting with the public, you'd better get extroverts. They like talking to people. They like interacting with people. Don't get introverts. They don't like to do that."

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You might rate either 10 or 1, so I gave the average of 5, May 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization (Paperback)

This book is for someone who had tried but failed to lead his people to excel. It could be very inspiring to those people if they have the wisdom to pick the good points from the book and create their own style, they would rate it 10(best). But if you had read the earlier (80's) books of Townsend "Further Up/Up the Organisation" (which I rated 10+), you would rate this one 1(worst).

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and worthy of your time., March 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Reinventing Leadership: Strategies to Empower the Organization (Paperback)

The authors of this interesting work explore a new leadership style suited to the new characteristics of organization and the direction leadership is taking today. The ideas are presented as a lively dialogue between Bennis and Townsend; this format may appeal to some and turn-off others. While we found it added some pizzazz, at times it gets in the way of the content. The book covers such topics as: developing leadership traits, the personal side of leadership, empowerment, and choosing a leader. Also included is a self-development plan. The number of books on leader seems to be infinite but this is one that is informative and worthy of your time. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, HR consultant.com InfoCenter and Stern & Associates.