Why Leaders Can't Lead
The Unconscious Conspiracy Continues
1. Edition July 1997
192 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
A Selection of the Executive Program and Fortune Book Clubs
Leaders beware. There's an unconscious conspiracy afoot, aiming to
sabotage your plans and undermine your vision. Entrenched
bureaucracy, ominous social trends, and mind-numbing routine are
among its members?and their proliferation is an unfortunate sign of
our times. But take heart. In this highly acclaimed work, legendary
management consultant Warren Bennis unmasks the culprits, analyzes
their tactics, and offers new insights for change agents struggling
to take charge in an era that conspires against effective
leadership.
The best book on how leaders can lead.
--Peter Drucker
Bennis teaches leaders to maximize their virtues, correct their
faults, face change successfully, and love their work. Leaders will
win, but so will their organizations: Bennis advocates a
collaborative leadership that empowers employees and enhances
organizational effectiveness.
A priceless gift to those seeking to be accountable leaders.
--Max De Pree, author of Leading Without Power
So learn why leaders can't lead. Then learn how they can lead. This
book--alive with warmth and wisdom--is essential reading both for
leaders and for the human resource professionals who teach them.
1. One Job, One Year, One Life.
2. Learning Some Basic Truisms About Leadership.
3. The New Metaphysics of Our Age.
Part Two: A Society Without Dreams.
4. The Long Slide from True Leadership.
5. Back to the Future.
6. The Age of Unreality.
7. Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Part Three: Parts of the Problem.
8. Bosses as Heroes and Celebrities.
9. When There Are Too Many Chiefs.
10. Bottom-Line Obsessions.
11. Untapped Human Capital.
12. The Perils of Accord.
13. The Pornography of Leadership.
14. When Winning Is Losing.
15. The Name of the Game Is Greed.
Part Four: Parts of the Solution.
16. Leading to Make a Difference.
17. A Bright Future for Complexity.
18. Letting Virtues Shine Through.
19. Quitting on Principle.
20. Canceling the Doppelgajnger Effect.
21. Leader Power That No One Has.
22. Avoiding Disaster During Periods of Change.
23. Dealing with the Way Things Are.
writers on leadership and management....The book is full of lively
insights expressed in vivid terms." --John W. Gardner, former
Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
"Only Warren Bennis has the unique combination of thirty years'
study of leaders and leadership and twenty years' practical
experience as COO and CEO of large and difficult organizations that
makes Why Leaders Can't Lead the best book on how leaders can
lead." --Peter Drucker
"Warren Bennis is one of the most perceptive and experienced
writers on leadership and management. . . . He knows a lot about
why our common efforts don't work and how they might be made to
work. The book is full of lively insights expressed in vivid
terms." --John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education
and Welfare, and founding chairman of Common Cause
"This is vintage Bennis! Bennis at his best!" --Robert TownsAnd,
author of Up the Organization and Further Up the Organization
