The Leadership Challenge
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| Author |
James Kouzes Barry Z. Posner |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Leadership and professional development |
| Genre | Business |
| Published | 1987 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | |
| 658.4/092 | |
The Leadership Challenge is a book written by James Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, published by Wiley. First published in 1987, the book's fifth edition was released in 2012, in light of its 25th anniversary.
Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner started developing the idea for The Leadership Challenge when they were planned to present about leadership at a two-day conference. Academics at Santa Clara University, Kouzes and Posner were set to speak after Tom Peters, who was presenting about successful companies. Kouzes and Posner decided to focus on individual leadership skills. The name for the book came from the concept of the challenges that take place to "make extraordinary things happen", according to Kouzes in 2012.
The Leadership Challenge uses case studies to examine "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership", as researched and developed by Kouzes and Posner. Their first surveys for the five practices started in 1983, by asking people "What do you do as a leader when you're performing at your personal best?" Over 30 years, they have done thousands of interviews and collected approximately 75,000 written responses. Kouzes and Posner identified five common concepts in their survey, hence the five practices, which are: "Model the Way", "Inspire a Shared Vision", "Challenge the Process", "Enable Others to Act" and "Encourage the Heart". Kouzes cites that the last practice, "Encourage the Heart", is the most uncommonly seen in leadership roles. The concept focuses on being sincere, including sincere celebrations devoted to recognizing employee successes. "Model the Way" encourages leaders to behave the same way they encourage others to behave, with their own voice and values. "Inspire a Shared Vision" focuses on developing a vision and series of goals that everyone at the organization cares about and works towards collectively, with clear understanding. "Challenge the Process" encourages moving "outside the boundaries" to be innovative to make change. "Enable Others to Act" is trust-based, encouraging leaders to create a safe and trusting environment for people to collaborate, experiment, and engage.
Kouzes and Posner believe that leadership is learned, not something one is born with. They look at traits seen within introvert and extrovert personalities, and examine how they can be developed into leaders by using those skills. For example, extroverts lean towards sharing of their thoughts and ideas with energy to larger groups, when introverts tend to be more quiet and one-on-one in their engagement about ideas to others. A survey featured in the book shows that honesty is the most respected personality trait that a leader can have. Three additional traits that leaders around the world share are forward-thinking, inspiration, and competency.
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