On Becoming a Leader: Warren G. Bennis

Warren Bennis is an American scholar, organizational consultant and author of a multitude of books. In this entry we will look at his book On Becoming a Leader and the section about personal habits. Bennis talks about freeing ourselves from habits and to become masters rather than slaves of our own lives, but I believe our habits are how we learn to become who we really are. Bennis states, that “we must first see and remember, and then forget” (p. 63). I agree with Bennis that we must first see and remember, but I disagree that he believes we must forget. It is the very reason that we learn certain things, whether they are true, false, or even absurd, that we become who we are today. However, it is important that we be aware of what we are retaining so that we don’t become victims to false details in the world.


Bennis talks about having to unlearn certain habits we have created in our lives. Is it true that it is necessary to unlearn things? We should not be so quick to say that we should actually have to unlearn things in our lives, but rather, we should learn further on certain things. For many children throughout their high school years there are several things, especially in history classes that may be over-looked that when they grow older they have learned about differently. I mention history because many teachers, and the text books used, portray America as the “winners” or the “rulers” of the world. While, on the other hand, in college, you learn about different arguments and hypotheses on the same topics. College, is a time to teach your mind how to work abstractly, to use it on your own, and not just regurgitate information back to one another. Bennis states that “every time we teach children something, rather than helping them learn, we keep them from inventing themselves” (p. 63). However, there must be a starting point for the children’s mind where he or she can expand from. This would be where Bennis would explain that “every great inventor or scientist has had to unlearn conventional wisdom in order to proceed with his or her work” (p. 63). It is understandable that if you learn something that has trained you to believe or work in a particular fashion, and later in life you learn it’s wrong or foolish, that you would have to learn the truthfulness of the matter, but what was originally taught should not necessarily be forgotten. Would it then not be foolish to not ask why one was taught such a false accusation? This could actually be an advantage for someone to use their mind in their own way to find the answer. However, we should not be accepting of everything we hear or everything we are taught. Bennis points out, the famous quote from Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (p 62). Every person has the ability to stretch their thinking abilities far and beyond what they are taught, and like I said before, there must be a starting point, even if it is feeding your mind unwise data. Something may spark, causing an interest, leading to further studying on the topic, where now the person is learning on his or her own.


Most people are raised not by a matter of choice, but how their parents bring them up. In many cases this results in cultural habits and beliefs, which may or may not be accurate to the actual purpose of traditions. Religion, for example, has been vastly morphed to better suit peoples lives. Most people may never realize the falseness in the beliefs the carry. However, some people, like myself, just happen to fall into a Religious Studies college course that opens their eyes to the Truth. With this, people may be led down a path of their own independent study, to ask their own questions, and to rationally find the answers. We would never say that we had to unlearn the things our teachers, parents, church leaders, or friends have taught us; we merely have continued to learn new things. If we do forget those things we were taught, then we would not be able to steer people away from those paths and show them that they may have become a believer of the typical, though false, ways of thought. However, Bennis does seem to agree with this idea as well when he states that “any gaps in your education can be filled, whatever your age or situation, by reading and thinking about what you read” (Bennis, 76). There is truth to that statement; however, it is unfortunate that many people in the world today don’t take the time to read, let alone to think about what they have read. The whole idea of our life is to learn, examine and grow. If we do not do these things, we become accustomed to believing the world’s lies, while battling the daily struggles of right and wrong. We cannot sit back and let others do the examining for us; we must all seek for knowledge by examining and rationally interpreting our experiences.