Summary

An intimate look at the founding father of the modern leadership movement Warren Bennis is an acclaimed American scholar, successful organizational consultant and author, and an expert in the field of leadership. His much awaited memoir is filled with insights about the successes and failures from his long and storied life and career. Bennis' life and career have traversed eight decades of first-hand experience with tumultuous episodes of recent history-from Jewish child in a gentile town in the 30's, a young army recruit in the Battle of the Bulge to a college student in the one of the first progressive precursors to the civil rights movement to a patient undergoing daily psychoanalysis for five years, and later a university provost during the Vietnam protests. Reveals the triumphs and struggles of the man who is considered the pioneer in the contemporary field of leadership studies Bennis is the author of 27 books including the bestseller On Becoming a Leader

This is first book to examine the extraordinary life of Warren Bennis by the man himself.

Booklist Review

A pioneer in studying leadership and group dynamics, Bennis, at age 85, looks back on a life and career focused on realization of individual and group potential. As a 19-year-old platoon member in WWII, Bennis began a lifetime of observing the kinds of pressures that create leaders. At Antioch College, Bennis met and became the protégé of Doug McGregor, who helped get him into MIT and introduced him to group dynamics. Bennis found Antioch and MIT fertile ground for ideas and the urgency to understand collective behavior, particularly after the Holocaust and the war. He recalls a golden age of social science, meeting and working with Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson, Robert Merton, and other pioneers in the nascent fields of psychoanalysis and group therapy. Bennis, author of the best-selling On Becoming a Leader (1989) and 29 other books on organizational dynamics and leadership, also recalls career and marital ups and downs and offers lessons and a critical self-analysis. A fascinating look at the life of a pioneering researcher and business consultant and the ties between social science and business management.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Bennis (chair, Ctr. for Public Leadership) has long been an influential leadership author. In this engaging autobiography, he relates tales from his early experiences as a World War II soldier and Antioch College student, as well as from his academic career, which placed him in contact with such notables as Doug McGregor, Erik Erikson, Werner Erhard, and Tom Peters. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.