Last week I wrote about the Warren Bennis Leadership Institute Summit. The number of great communicators I was lucky enough to observe was mind-boggling. Here are a few skills and techniques I witnessed: Extreme Preparation. The whole team, from the University of Cincinnati leadership to the student leadership, started twice weekly meetings in January to prepare. As an actor and coach, I know that early and thorough preparation takes us 95% of the way to fluency and confidence. I am often met with clients who are just “too busy” to prepare. And I get it! We prepare during our sessions, if need be. And, when I have the luxury to work with people and organizations who jump right in without hesitation to work through every kink, dot every i, and do so with gusto, I know I’ve found my people. I think that’s why I love stage actors—we are completely IN from warm-up to set strike. Intention: We were lucky that our focus, our intention for the event was crystal clear: to connect people who knew, loved, worked with, studied with, and were influenced by Dad’s work in leadership, with the UC students, staff and faculty. We wanted everyone to know what it was like to be in Dad’s presence. As Pat Zigarmi said…Read on.

This week I was honored to witness an almost indescribable panoply of great communicators. We started with a hybrid virtual/in-person Warren Bennis Leadership Institute Council meeting with 30 people, which included Tom Peters, Ken Blanchard, Joline Godfrey, Joan Goldsmith, Pat Zigarmi, Doug Conant, Ken Cloke, Cynthia Cherrey, Bob Castellini, Dick Thornburgh, Raj Sisodia, and Betsy Myers. As the Chair of the Council, my job was to introduce this esteemed group to the University of Cincinnati’s WBLI leadership team, internal Advisory Board, and student leaders. We could have gone on for days. The enthusiasm and generosity of the Council members filled the room with love: they shared their stories about Dad/Warren, about their passion for leadership development, and the extraordinary moment we find ourselves in today when great leaders are the critical ingredient on all fronts: political, environmental, societal, global, and economic. From there, we moved to a panel discussion with …Read on.

Joan Goldsmith, a dear friend, co-author, and colleague of my father’s, recently found a typed copy of this essay while cleaning out her files. Dad’s words here compel us to make the connection between Leadership and Art. The essay was not published when he wrote it in 2002, but was included in the book, The Essential Bennis, followed by comments from Glenn Close. Dad loved the theater and I was lucky enough to benefit from his enthusiasm—we saw A Chorus Line on Broadway and Cats on the West End. His favorite author was Shakespeare of whom he said, “Every time I read Shakespeare, he’s learned something new!” He once said that Falstaff (“a fat, vain, and boastful knight, he spends most of his time drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money”) was the first executive coach, sent by King Henry IV to prepare his son for the throne. Love that. Dad always connected Leadership and theater…and so do I. He wrote an article in Bloomberg called, Acting the Part of Leader and wrote the introduction to the book, Leadership Presence by Kathy Lubar and Belle Halpern, both performers who started the Ariel Group. I have to thank my father for so eloquently making the case for the work I do—using the skills and techniques of the theater to help people communicate as their full selves in the world. Here, he lays it all out for us. Enjoy…Read on.

Questions that Connect Us

Jun 30

Written By Kate Bennis

In the Fall of 2016 I visited our dear family friends, Joan Goldsmith and her husband, Ken Cloke. I was trying to make sense of a world where all the things I valued (empathy, connection, representation, equity, equality, justice) seemed to be rejected by so many of my country-people. The cognitive dissonance left me bereft and lacking the capacity to see the complexity of the moment: everything and everyone seemed to be “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong.”

Ken caught me up short in a conversation that reframed everything. He said, “The trouble is that we are asking the wrong questions. The questions we’re asking only have polarizing answers.” I was flooded with examples: “Who did you vote for?” “Do you believe in God?” “Do you support abortion rights?” “Do you support gun reform?” “Where do you get your news?”

These questions have only one-word answers. There is no room for a complex human being to reside in those answers.

Ken guided me to ask a very different question, a question that invites infinite answers, a question that has framed our humanity, given us meaning, culture, and connection.

This week, think about the questions we ask. Are they likely to polarize us? Or connect us? This week, we play with questions that invite connection.

Read on for Ken’s question, a question that cracks us open…