Book Reviews
On Becoming a Leader Summary and Review
★★★★☆ 4.3/5 — A humanistic, introspective classic that treats leadership as an inward journey of self-discovery rather than a checklist of behaviors.…
Read Summary →Warren Bennis
"The MIT-trained scholar who argued leaders are made mostly by themselves, through self-knowledge."
Warren G. Bennis (1925–2014) was an American scholar widely regarded as a founding father of leadership studies as a distinct academic field. He held a PhD from MIT, where he studied under Douglas McGregor, and went on to chair MIT's Organizational Studies group, serve as President of the University of Cincinnati, and become a University Professor and founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at USC. His 1961 Harvard Business Review article helped establish leadership as a field separate from general management theory.
1 book featured·Founding scholar of modern leadership studies
Books by Warren Bennis
Our in-depth summaries and reviews of his work
Key Ideas & Recurring Themes
Becoming a leader is becoming yourself
In "On Becoming a Leader," Bennis argues leadership grows from self-knowledge and full self-expression more than from external credentials or appointed authority.
Notable Quotes
"Leaders are made, not born, and made more by themselves than by any external means."— On Becoming a Leader
Book Author Warren Bennis
On Becoming a Leader Summary and Review
★★★★☆ 4.3/5 — A humanistic, introspective classic that treats leadership as an inward journey of self-discovery rather than a checklist of behaviors. Best for: readers who want the psychological “why” underneath more tactical leadership books · Reading time: ~7 hrs…