Top 60 John P. Kotter Quotes
#1. Great leaders motivate large groups of individuals to improve the human condition.
John P. Kotter
#2. Great vision communication usually means heartfelt messages are coming from real human beings.
John P. Kotter
#3. Great leadership does not mean running away from reality. Sometimes the hard truths might just demoralize the company, but at other times sharing difficulties can inspire people to take action that will make the situation better.
John P. Kotter
#4. Valued achievements connect to people at a deeper level - and a deeper level can change behavior that is generally very difficult to change.
John P. Kotter
#5. I'm impatient. Typically people think they know all about change and don't need help. Their approach tends to be more management-oriented than leadership-oriented. It's very frustrating.
John P. Kotter
#6. We keep a change in place by helping to create a new, supportive, and sufficiently strong organizational culture.
John P. Kotter
#8. Many years ago, I think I got my first insight on how an incredibly diverse team can work together and do astonishing things, and not just misunderstand each other and fight.
John P. Kotter
#10. One of the most powerful forms of information is feedback on our own actions.
John P. Kotter
#12. 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
#13. Analytical tools have their limitations in a turbulent world. These tools work best when parameters are known, assumptions are minimal, and the future is not fuzzy.
John P. Kotter
#14. 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
#15. In a change effort, culture comes last, not first.
John P. Kotter
#16. Leadership produces change. That is its primary function
John P. Kotter
#17. 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
#18. Without credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of others are never captured.
John P. Kotter
#19. 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
#20. Because management deals mostly with the status quo and leadership deals mostly with change, in the next century we are going to have to try to become much more skilled at creating leaders.
John P. Kotter
#21. The world has 6 billion people and counting. We need to help 500 million people become better leaders so that billions can benefit.
John P. Kotter
#22. The vast majority of large scale change efforts fail. Which means that the probability that you have actually experienced a failure, and your people know that and are pessimistic, therefore, about trying something again, is very high.
John P. Kotter
#23. Most US corporations today are over-managed and under-led. They need to develop their capacity to exercise leadership.
John P. Kotter
#24. Motivation is not a thinking word; it's a feeling word.
John P. Kotter
#25. We started Kotter International to improve leaders' ability to deal with big, important transformations in organizations - and in their lives.
John P. Kotter
#26. Outsiders have the intuitive ability to continually view problems in fresh ways and to identify ineffective practices and traditions.
John P. Kotter
#27. Complacency is almost always the product of success or perceived success
John P. Kotter
#28. 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
#29. Effective leaders help others to understand the necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome.
John P. Kotter
#30. 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
#31. People change what they do less because they are given an analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.
John P. Kotter
#32. 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
#33. Great communicators have an appreciation for positioning. They understand the people they're trying to reach and what they can and can't hear. They send their message in through an open door rather than trying to push it through a wall.
John P. Kotter
#34. Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.
John P. Kotter
#37. Never underestimate the magnitude of the power of the forces that reinforce the status quo.
John P. Kotter
#38. We are always creating new tools and techniques to help people, but the fundamental framework is remarkably resilient, which means it must have something to do with the nature of organizations or human nature.
John P. Kotter
#39. Commercial organisations that operate responsibly have benefitted by increased revenues of 682% compared to 166% for those that don't
John P. Kotter
#40. People are more inclined to be drawn in if their leader has a compelling vision. Great leaders help people get in touch with their own aspirations and then will help them forge those aspirations into a personal vision.
John P. Kotter
#41. No vision issue today is bigger than the question of efficiency versus some combination of innovation and customer service.
John P. Kotter
#42. Kotter International is about leading large-scale change, not just managing it.
John P. Kotter
#43. If the culture you have is radically different from an 'experiment and take-risk' culture, then you have a big change you going to have to make - and no little gimmicks are going to do it for you.
John P. Kotter
#44. We learn best - and change - from hearing stories that strike a chord within us.
John P. Kotter
#45. In the final analysis, change sticks when it becomes the way we do things around here.
John P. Kotter
#46. Most people don't lead their own lives - they accept their lives
John P. Kotter
#47. We worry about appearing awkward in a presentation. But up to a point, most people seem to feel more comfortable with less-than-perfect speaking abilities. It makes the speaker more human - and more vulnerable, meaning he is less likely to attack our decisions or beliefs.
John P. Kotter
#48. A culture truly changes only when a new way of operating has been shown to succeed over some minimum period of time.
John P. Kotter
#49. Leadership is different from management, but not for the reasons most people think.
John P. Kotter
#50. Managers are trained to make incremental, programmatic improvements. They aren't trained to lead large-scale change.
John P. Kotter
#51. Great leaders understand that historical success tends to produce stable and inwardly focused organizations, and these outfits, in turn, reinforce a feeling of contentment with the status quo.
John P. Kotter
#52. In an ever changing world, you never learn it all, even if you keep growing into your 90s.
John P. Kotter
#53. Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for abstract ideas. Tales with a little drama are remembered far longer than any slide crammed with analytics.
John P. Kotter
#54. A leader needs enough understanding to fashion an intelligent strategy.
John P. Kotter
#55. We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership.
John P. Kotter
#56. Low lights signal to our senses that the workday may be over and it's time for sleep, making it hard for an audience to pay careful attention. When we stand behind a big wooden podium, it can feel as if there's a shield between us and the audience.
John P. Kotter
#57. 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
#58. Good communication does not mean that you have to speak in perfectly formed sentences and paragraphs. It isn't about slickness. Simple and clear go a long way.
John P. Kotter
#59. 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
#60. Anyone in a large organization who thinks major change is impossible should probably get out.
John P. Kotter
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