7 Quotes & Sayings By John P Kotter

John Kotter is the co-author of "Leading Change" (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), which became a New York Times bestseller. He was an executive at ExxonMobil and McKinsey & Company, and is widely recognized as an expert in organizational change and leadership. He has consulted and lectured to hundreds of organizations worldwide. His clients include: American Express, BMW, Citigroup, eBay, General Electric, Halliburton, Home Depot, IBM, KPMG LLP, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, PepsiCo and Pfizer Read more

John serves on the board of directors of the Harvard Business School Club of New York City and on the advisory boards of the Society for Human Resource Management and the Center for Creative Leadership. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

1
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
2
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
3
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
4
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
5
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
6
Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there. John P. Kotter