Kouzes and Posner found that when people think of role models, certain behaviors are typically displayed by those they consider leaders – from grandparents to businessmen in suits. But their research revealed certain core behaviors which define exemplary leadership.
Their research unearthed thousands of stories of personal best leadership experiences–and discovered a consistent set of practices across each story: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.
Model the Way
Kouzes and Posner’s Five Leadership Practices begin with “Modeling the Way,” or consistent word and deed, so your followers can see exactly what values are important to you.
Example: in the film’s opening scene, when an older gentleman in his sports car offered his umbrella to help a reporter hit by a fleeing criminal, this showed his willingness to assist others. Furthermore, when he shared that his generosity wasn’t driven by luck but by a belief that we should help those less fortunate than ourselves instead, others gained insight into his values and those held by his company.
Leaders can demonstrate their values through systems and processes that support people living out the values, even without them present. This may involve creating clear guidelines on how people should behave as well as rewarding systems to dispense benefits based on how closely people adhere to those values.
While new research on leadership emerges regularly, its fundamental practices remain the same. That’s why The Leadership Challenge remains popular over the decades and remains the gold standard of leadership development. If you would like to find out how The Leadership Challenge can be used to increase effectiveness among your leaders and improve organizational culture within your organization – reach out to one of our team members now and schedule a free leadership assessment by clicking below!
Inspire a Shared Vision
Establishing an appealing vision of the future for others to see is a key aspect of leadership. This practice requires leaders to envision exciting possibilities, consider ways they might entice people to pursue those opportunities, and envision the organization after those possibilities have come into fruition. By doing this, leaders can foster unity within their organization that can propel it forward.
Leaders engaging in this leadership practice begin by listening carefully to those they lead and understanding what matters to them in both their professional and personal lives. From there, it’s up to leaders to connect those needs with what their organization requires and how best it can serve its stakeholders; creating a clear shared vision that everyone can rally around.
A great leader can motivate others to follow them by helping them discover meaning in their work and the overall mission of the organization. This gives people something to rally behind, making them feel they are part of something grander that can alter our world for good.
Kouzes and Posner argue that leaders need to be able to translate their vision into something concrete for those they lead, setting goals and objectives related to it and detailing its impact on both stakeholders and organization. Furthermore, this requires leaders using powerful language which captures their vision while making it memorable enough that others may join them in pursuit of it.
The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI(r)) 360+ is an observer-based assessment designed to assist leaders and their selected observers in assessing how frequently they engage in each of the five practices described by Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge. Our comprehensive suite of leadership development solutions can also assist leaders as they unite their people to take on life’s obstacles head-on and turn those challenges into successes.
Challenge the Process
Doing extraordinary things requires more than managing day-to-day tasks and keeping an organization running efficiently; it requires charting new paths that lead to growth and success. Leaders at all levels should be capable of rising above operational work to provide visionary leadership for their teams, organizations, and communities.
Kouzes and Posner created their leadership model after polling thousands of people to recall personal experiences with outstanding leaders, which their research showed shared common characteristics among these “personal best” moments. From this research they identified five core practices all leaders can employ to get extraordinary results: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.
These five practices form the cornerstone of The Leadership Challenge suite of books, training products and assessments. They define leadership as an observable set of skills and abilities rather than an inherent personality trait; unlike other theories that focus on traits or values alone. Furthermore, unlike many of today’s leadership theories which focus on particular people or traits; instead these practices transcend culture, gender or age barriers; just like better string can help tennis players advance more, these practices serve as essential building blocks of exceptional leadership.
Leaders must regularly evaluate their team structure and operating procedures in order to identify areas for improvement. Although this can be challenging, effective leaders will make changes with diligence. Furthermore, they test and refine ideas without fear of failure so as to push for the most efficient solutions.
Leadership can be learned and practiced by all. By focusing on the five leadership practices, leaders can achieve more in their roles while inspiring greater engagement among followers. Our Leadership Practices Inventory assesses how often leaders use each of these behaviors to increase effectiveness; higher scores on this measure indicate greater emphasis on them as leadership behaviors.
Enable Others to Act
Attaining more requires collaboration and support from team members. Leaders at every level must commit to encouraging cooperation by developing relationships between individuals and bringing them into a common purpose. Furthermore, any level team member should have opportunities for leadership and decision making. When people feel that their contributions matter they become motivated to collaborate more and take greater ownership in what they are accomplishing together.
Kouzes and Posner’s fourth practice, Enable Others to Act, refers to encouraging others to take actions toward realizing the organization’s goals and vision. Leaders can provide this support by setting clear roles and responsibilities, encouraging individual contributions and helping everyone develop their skills.
Leaders must seek out opportunities for innovation and improvement consciously. They should experiment and take risks, even if initially unsuccessful; be willing to learn from mistakes shared among team members; and establish an environment of learning which encourages people to try out new things without feeling ashamed when things don’t go as planned.
From The Leadership Challenge book and LPI (Leadership Practices Inventory), our range of solutions is designed to assist your organization in creating an environment of leadership that fosters excellence and fosters business performance. Our LPI: Student Assessment and workshop options offer hands-on leadership development experiences for every level in your workforce – from front line employees through senior management. Discover more about how these tools can guide and develop leaders by selecting one that’s tailored specifically to you.
Encourage the Heart
Kouzes and Posner’s research indicates that leaders must connect with their team members in order to motivate them. To do this, leaders must “encourage the heart” by showing appreciation for individual excellence while celebrating team achievements, creating a sense of community by including all team members in setting and reaching goals, celebrating team wins and celebrating triumphant moments together.
Leadership isn’t about personality; it’s about behavior – an observable set of skills and abilities that can be learned. When The Leadership Challenge authors collected and analyzed personal-best leadership stories, they discovered that when people experienced effective leadership they displayed certain core behaviors: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act and Encourage the Heart.
New leadership research and innovative ways of looking at leadership are always being revealed; yet these five practices remain the cornerstones of becoming an outstanding leader. Their behaviors have repeatedly proven that they lead to higher employee engagement levels, more efficient teams and improved business results.
This fast and straightforward guide will walk you through Kouzes & Posner’s fifth Leadership Practice: Encourage the Heart. It provides tools that will enable you to encourage team members to take action and reach greater achievements.
Are you curious to gain more insights on becoming an outstanding leader? Take a look at our range of leadership development solutions.
The Leadership Challenge is the world’s best-selling leadership book. To access shortform’s excellent book summaries and analysis of this epic text, visit Shortform today.
2018 Jossey-Bass, a division of Wiley Periodicals, Inc. All rights are reserved by this publication which offers strategies and experiences designed to expose youth to leadership concepts from an early age and engage them. Appropriate for children between 10-18.
