Warren Bennis book signing today

I went to a Warren Bennis book signing today. Still Surprised, his memoir. He spoke about his life, writing about leadership then about himself.

And a main point was anecdote versus situations you had lived. Which carries over into living leadership or writing about it. His early experience with leadership was in World War Two.

He warned about false modesty, not protecting other people as you “use” them in your writing and writing truthfully but not including embarrassing points.

And he discussed how the feedback he got from friends was that his memoir was about people, not events or even leadership.

Someone who has had such success as a writer was charming and gracious to those in line waiting for an instant of his time. I gave him my book and he called me a writer (I still don’t feel like a writer though I’ve seen the book.

Impressive man. At such a different stage in his writing career.