Twenty-first century business change must overcome overmanaged and underled cultures. 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.

Granted, managing change is important. Competent management is required to keep change efforts on track. But for most organizations, the much bigger challenge is leading change. Only leadership can blast through the many sources of corporate inertia. Only leadership can motivate the actions needed to alter behavior in any significant way. Only leadership can get change to stick, by anchoring it in the very culture of the organization.

But leadership, Kotter¹ stresses cannot be confined to one larger-than-life individual who charms thousands into being obedient followers. Modern organizations are far too complex to be transformed by a single giant. The leadership effort must have support from many people who assist the leadership agenda within their sphere of activity.

Kotter advises those who would implement change to foster a sense of urgency within the organization. "A higher rate of urgency does not imply everpresent panic, anxiety, or fear. It means a state in which complacency is virtually absent.“... More

To start, there is a declaration of what the future will be. There is also a purpose, something to stand for. And finally, there is a clearly articulated commitment... More

 Success Story  Jack Welch

Jack Welch has been with the General Electric Company (GE) since 1960. Having taken GE with a market capitalization of about $12 billion, Jack Welch turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world, with a market value of about $500 billion, when he stepped down as its CEO 20 years later, in 2000. Although Jack Welch is "the celebrated leader of a global manufacturer often noted for its technological prowess, he has utilized a very human process to drive change through GE's vast organization. Having respect for the individual as a pivotal force in organizational change, Welch created a model of exceptional performance every corporate leader can learn from... More

25 Lessons from Jack Welch