Abraham Zaleznik Quotes

United States, Scientist
1924 – 2011.

Abraham Zaleznik was a leading scholar and teacher in the field of organizational psychodynamics and the psychodynamics of leadership. At the time of his death he was a Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Business School where he taught for four decades. He was a practicing psychoanalyst and the author of 16 books.

Also known as Teacher, Psychoanalyst

Leaders are active instead of reactive, shaping ideas instead of responding to them. Leaders adopt a personal and active attitude toward goals. The influence a leader exerts in altering moods, evoking images and expectations, and in establishing specific desires and objectives determines the direction an organization takes. The net result of this influence is to change the way people think about what is desirable, possible, and necessary. In other words, leaders are visionaries and managers operate within those established visions.

Abraham Zaleznik
If you want to understand entrepreneurs, you have to study the psychology of the juvenile delinquent. They don't have the same anxiety triggers that we have.

Abraham Zaleznik