Force For Change: How Leadership Differs from Management
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Robert E. Gregory, Jr. President, VF Corporation "A Force for Change" will be received as the seminal work on the nature and function of leadership.
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Strong managers produce predictability and order, but leaders create, communicate and implement visions of the future which enable companies to change themselves in a changing competitive marketplace. Building upon his landmark analysis of the job of the general manager and his influential work on leadership, power and influence, John Kotter now focuses on the human factors which bring change. Using case studies from 11 top corporations, Kotter unfolds the stories behind the great successes of leaders who propelled their companies beyond expectations. Through example after example, Kotter identifies the specific personal attributes of these leaders and illustrates the practices that create outstanding leadership.
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The word leadership is used in two very different ways in every day conservation. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The word leadership is used in two very different ways in every day conservation. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
John Kotter in his book A Force for Change, describes in detail three subprocesses that are the foundation of leadership. The first is the developing a vision of the future. Kotter believes that this must be along with the strategies for producing the changes needed to achieve that vision. The second is aligning people. According Kotter this involves communication direction and developing coalitions committed to achievement of the vision. The third is keeping people moving in the right direction by appealing to very basic, but often untapped human needs, values and emotions. Kotter distinguish management and leadership. He supports that management produces a degree of predictability and order and has the potential of consistency producing key results expected by various stakeholders.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This lucid, compelling and elegant book is yet another tour de force from Kotter, a long-standing Professor at Harvard Business School and a leading authority on the subject of business leadership. His inspiration for A Force for Change came, he tells us, from his research for a previous book, The Leadership Factor, during which he became convinced of the importance of the difference between management and leadership, and of the fact that this difference was badly understood by many business people. Kotter is scientific in his methods: he surveyed 200 senior executives working for twelve of American's most successful corporations and then talked in detail to individuals who offered specific instances of highly effective business leadership. Kotter, to labour the point, is not making this stuff up.
Management, says Kotter, in a typically telling phrase, is all about homeostasis: it aims to keep a system functioning at maximum efficiency by keeping critical variables within increasingly tightly-defined limits. Management requires consistent results; it hates surprises; it takes no risks; it does not seek excitement. Leadership, of course, is the opposite. Leadership produces change. That is its primary function. By definition, change is risky. Leaders need a vision of the (perhaps distant) future. They must, according to Kotter, 'align' their teams with the direction in which the leader wants to move. Getting everybody aligned with this direction is not, he argues, an organisational problem, as many people imagine it to be - it is an inspirational problem, and people cannot be genuinely inspired by the techniques that are used (quite successfully) to achieve a typical 'managerial' result. Leaders must appeal to fundamental human needs on a more emotional level: achievement; belonging; recognition; self-esteem; living up to one's ideals.
Kotter also reminds us that organisations need both good leadership and good management - organisations with too much leadership (he cites entrepreneurial start-ups as a good example) can begin to unravel as the lack of structure and control systems begins to impact on the essential delivery of timely and consistent results. Organisations that are over-managed begin to implode under the weight of their own control systems. Despite the striking differences between the skills and attitudes needed by leaders and managers respectively, Kotter argues that we need to develop a breed of `leader-managers'. He does not underestimate the challenge that this represents.
A Force for Change is liberally illustrated with accounts of the actions of the business leaders who were selected as shining examples of highly effective leadership, and of the results that they achieved for their organisations. A book that is hard to fault - and highly readable.
Management, says Kotter, in a typically telling phrase, is all about homeostasis: it aims to keep a system functioning at maximum efficiency by keeping critical variables within increasingly tightly-defined limits. Management requires consistent results; it hates surprises; it takes no risks; it does not seek excitement. Leadership, of course, is the opposite. Leadership produces change. That is its primary function. By definition, change is risky. Leaders need a vision of the (perhaps distant) future. They must, according to Kotter, 'align' their teams with the direction in which the leader wants to move. Getting everybody aligned with this direction is not, he argues, an organisational problem, as many people imagine it to be - it is an inspirational problem, and people cannot be genuinely inspired by the techniques that are used (quite successfully) to achieve a typical 'managerial' result. Leaders must appeal to fundamental human needs on a more emotional level: achievement; belonging; recognition; self-esteem; living up to one's ideals.
Kotter also reminds us that organisations need both good leadership and good management - organisations with too much leadership (he cites entrepreneurial start-ups as a good example) can begin to unravel as the lack of structure and control systems begins to impact on the essential delivery of timely and consistent results. Organisations that are over-managed begin to implode under the weight of their own control systems. Despite the striking differences between the skills and attitudes needed by leaders and managers respectively, Kotter argues that we need to develop a breed of `leader-managers'. He does not underestimate the challenge that this represents.
A Force for Change is liberally illustrated with accounts of the actions of the business leaders who were selected as shining examples of highly effective leadership, and of the results that they achieved for their organisations. A book that is hard to fault - and highly readable.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent book that distinguishes clearly from the often misunderstood roles of leaders and managers. Dr. Kotter, a brilliant author and leadership expert, shows us the way. I suggest you also read a superb book I recently purchased with this one; it gets into what a leader must do to be successful on the job--it's available at Amazon also: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."
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