WHY LEADERS CAN'T LEAD

Interesting paradoxes from "Why Leaders Can't Lead" by Warren Bennis.



Among other accomplishments, Bennis has served as faculty @ Harvard, Exec VP @ SUNY Buffalo, and president @ U of Cincinnati. Here's a quote I thought you might appreciate:



"Government has ranged from small and informal to big and effective to big and dumb, blinded now by it's own red tape, functioning more of, by, and for itself than for us... We are capable of virtually destroying the world, but we cannot deal with tiny bands of terrorists. Cigarette and liquor consumption is down, but marijuana and cocaine consumption is up. The Beatles have been succeeded by the Beastie Boys... Our typewriters are now word processors, but we seem to have little to say, and what we do say we say badly... Everything mechanical has evolved, become better, more efficient, more sophisticated, while everything organic - from ourselves to tomatoes - has devolved. Like the new tomatoes, we lack flavor and juice and taste. Manufactured goods are far more impressive than the people who make them. We are less good, ...and less sophisticated with each passing decade."



Some of these truths can be inspiring as we have a great opportunity to affect change in future generations through the children and subordinates within our sphere of influence. After what seems to be an endless stream of abuses & misuses of power such as Watergate, JFK, Martin Luther, and Vietnam (not to mention more recent events) -- we have denied legitimacy to all traditional authority. I've been told that Anti-establishmentarianism is one of the longest words in the Dictionary... it's certainly gone a long way to deteriorate the fabric of our society. Yet, though we have rejected leadership (somewhat understandable), we have never before had a greater need for leaders! What a paradoxical profundity!