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. KotterRead
Those in leadership positions who fail to grasp or use the power of stories risk failure for their companies and for themselves.
Interpretation
Effective leaders must understand and leverage storytelling to succeed.
This quote highlights the importance of storytelling in leadership. John P. Kotter emphasizes that leaders who do not recognize the power of narratives in influencing others and driving engagement may ultimately lead their teams and organizations toward failure, as stories help convey vision, values, and inspire action among followers.
In practice
During a keynote speech at a leadership conference to emphasize the role of storytelling.
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.
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.
Managers are trained to make incremental, programmatic improvements. They aren't trained to lead large-scale change.
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.
Outsiders have the intuitive ability to continually view problems in fresh ways and to identify ineffective practices and traditions.
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.
The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.
Trust is the foundation of real teamwork. And so the first dysfunction is a failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another. And if that sounds touchy-feely, let me explain, because there is nothing soft about it. It is an absolutely critical part of building a team. In fact, itβs probably the most critical.
Leaders know the importance of having someone in their lives who will unfailingly and fearlessly tell them the truth.
If you cry ''Forward'' you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go. Don't you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely opposite directions?
Work hard to seem infallible and others will work to find our flaws. Admit our shortcomings and others will work to help us be infallible.
My whole career has been marked by taking on the toughest problems, bringing people together, creating uncommon coalitions to ultimately produce uncommon results - things that people said couldn't be done.
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