Summary Of On Becoming A Leader By Warren Bennis

As a student of system leadership, I know that I am bound to lead systems with various individuals with remarkably challenging lives. From my individual assessment, I have realized that taking the role of a system leader is a big task, one which cannot be easily accomplished with one’s own resources. An individual in a position of leadership needs to acquire knowledge, resources as well as people from various places so as to get things done effectively. In the book “On Becoming A Leader”, Warren Bennis’ offers various insights about leadership. In this book, two particular chapters involving knowing thyself and how to grow through chaos have made me take a deeper look into how I can apply myself in terms of personal growth and decisions as a leader.
Bennis summarizes his lesson about knowing thyself into four points (Bennis, 2009). In the first point, he states that the best person to learn from is you. On the second point as he points out that part of the process to knowing yourself includes accepting responsibility instead of blaming others. On the third point, Bennis states that one is capable of learning whatever he or she wants to learn. Lastly on the lesson of knowing yourself, he points out that in order to achieve true understanding,
As a system leader, the knowledge gotten from this reading is quite motivational to me especially since my work will involve dealing with diverse children, communities, families and staff. The lesson on self knowledge allows me room for growth because I know that I can learn whatever I want. This will help me keep an open mind especially in a new environment. Reflecting on my own experiences with other groups will also help me offer richer knowledge to impact whichever group of individuals I might lead