Overcoming complacency is crucial at the start of any change process, and it often requires a little bit of surprise, something that grabs attention at more than an intellectual level. You need to surprise people with something that disturbs their view that everything is perfect.

John P. Kotter

Categorized in : People Perfect Views

Leadership is about setting a direction. It's about creating a vision, empowering and inspiring people to want to achieve the vision, and enabling them to do so with energy and speed through an effective strategy. In its most basic sense, leadership is about mobilizing a group of people to jump into a better future.

John P. Kotter

empowering creating people

The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people.

John P. Kotter

issues culture people

One of the most common ways to overcome resistance to change is to educate people about it beforehand. Communication of ideas helps people see the need for and the logic of a change. The education process can involve one-on-one discussions, presentations to groups, or memos and reports.

John P. Kotter

communication leadership ideas

Good communication is not just data transfer. You need to show people something that addresses their anxieties, that accepts their anger, that is credible in a very gut-level sense, and that evokes faith in the vision.

John P. Kotter

data communication people

Effective leaders help others to understand the necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome.

John P. Kotter

common-vision helping-others leadership

Motivation and inspiration energize people, not by pushing them in the right direction as control mechanisms do but by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a feeling of control over one's life, and the ability to live up to one's ideals. Such feelings touch us deeply and elicit a powerful response.

John P. Kotter

motivation powerful leadership

Producing major change in an organization is not just about signing up one charismatic leader. You need a group - a team - to be able to drive the change. One person, even a terrific charismatic leader, is never strong enough to make all this happen.

John P. Kotter

team strong organization

The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.

John P. Kotter

competition next change

Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles.

John P. Kotter

leadership inspire people

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.

John P. Kotter

sacrifice motivation change

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.

John P. Kotter

vision leader inspirational

Without credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of others are never captured.

John P. Kotter

listening-to-others communication heart

A higher rate of urgency does not imply ever-present panic, anxiety, or fear. It means a state in which complacency is virtually absent.

John P. Kotter

anxiety doe mean

Never underestimate the magnitude of the power of the forces that reinforce the status quo.

John P. Kotter

status-quo underestimate force

We learn best - and change - from hearing stories that strike a chord within us.

John P. Kotter

hearing storytelling stories

Without conviction that you can make change happen, you will not act, even if you see the vision. Your feelings will hold you back.

John P. Kotter

conviction vision feelings

Changing behavior is less a matter of giving people analysis to influence their thoughts than helping them to see a truth to influence their feelings.

John P. Kotter

feelings giving people

In the final analysis, change sticks when it becomes the way we do things around here.

John P. Kotter

finals analysis change

Leadership produces change. That is its primary function

John P. Kotter

economics business management

We see, we feel, we change.

John P. Kotter

feels