Top 22 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Quotes

Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.

The creative process for me doesn’t work as well without an image of an audience in mind.

Tribalism reflects strong ethnic or cultural identities that separate members of one group from another, making them loyal to people like them and suspicious of outsiders, which undermines efforts to forge common cause across groups.

I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons taught us we were entitled to, no matter what the sacrifice.

Power is the ability to get things done.

It’s almost impossible to break a losing streak on your own.

My creative process involves that old saying: It’s 90% perspiration and only 10% inspiration.

Too many people let others stand in their way and don’t go back for one more try.

Leaders must pick causes they won’t abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter.

The boomers’ biggest impact will be on eliminating the term ‘retirement’ and inventing a new stage of life… the new career arc.

Confidence isn’t optimism or pessimism, and it’s not a character attribute. It’s the expectation of a positive outcome.

The Martha Stewart trial makes clear how far women have risen in the business world. America can be proud of our equal-opportunity prosecution and conviction.

Ambivalence about family responsibilities has a long history in the corporate world.

We have a large pool of talented and educated women, and yet workplaces haven’t necessarily changed to accommodate the reality of their lives.

When you fail at something, the best thing to do is think back to your successes, and try to replicate whatever you did to make them happen.

‘No’ is always an easier stand than ‘Yes.’

Cheap labor is not going to be the way we compete in the United States. It’s going to be brain power.

The goal of winning is not losing two times in a row.

A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.

One of the symptoms of a losing streak is a turnover of top executives. It’s a revolving door.

Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they’ve never seen before, something that does not yet exist.

Companies used to be able to function with autocratic bosses. We don’t live in that world anymore.