Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership

by Warren Bennis, Patricia Ward Biederman (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470432389
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/16/2010
Series:	J-B Warren Bennis Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Warren Bennis is distinguished professor of business administration at the University of Southern California. He is chairman of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School. He has also served as president of the University of Cincinnati and provost of SUNY-Buffalo. He lives happily in Santa Monica with his wife, Dr. Grace Gabe.

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Table of Contents

PRELUDE IX

1 The Crucible of War 1

2 Launch 23

3 Rites of Passage 51

4 Great Groups 83

5 Fighting the Bull 111

6 Going State 135

7 A Year at Sea 153

8 Coming Home 173

9 The Crucible of Age 199

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 215

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 221

INDEX 223

Editorial Reviews

"As a wonderfully honest reporter, Warren does not hesitate to discuss his disappointments and his mistakes, personal as well as professional. Yet this book has an excitement, an energy, a joie de vivre that is inspiring. As an essentialist, I suspect that Warren was born with an ebullient temperament. And yet at the same time, I must acknowledge that Warren is at the happiest point in his life right now, because the roles that he assumed in the last twenty years— master teacher, mentor, writer, pundit, and, yes, guru—are the ones into which he has grown. And they have made him what he is, just as surely as he excelled in them because of who he is." (Howard Gardner, The Washington Post, August 11, 2010)

From the Publisher