On Becoming a Leader

This is a book on leadership development - "the hows: how people become leaders, how they lead, and how organizations encourage or stifle potential leaders." Leaders know what they want, why they want it, and how to communicate what they want to others, in order to gain their cooperation and support. And, leaders know how to achieve their goals." The key difference between this book and other leadership books is that this one promotes developing leadership from within, rather than to describe what a person should strive to be. A large area of focus is that of experience. Warren Bennis stresses the importance of experience as the primary development vehicle for leaders. Education is important - but does not substitute for experience -- whether successes or failures. Warren Bennis then focuses on the lives of a few of today's successful leaders.