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1-Page Summary of The Leadership Challenge

Overview

The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner takes a close look at leadership in various fields. Their research found that there are five practices that leaders commonly list as key to moments when they were effective leaders. These include credibility, which is related to the characteristics followers seek in their leaders. These include honesty, a focus on the long term, competence, and the ability to inspire others.

Leaders should set the right example for their team. They can do that by knowing what values to communicate and getting approval from the team on those values. Leaders should be consistent in both word and deed, reinforcing shared values in a variety of ways.

To improve team performance, leaders should first examine every possibility for the team’s goals and strategy. Then they need to communicate those goals within the framework of their values. Team engagement depends on a leader’s ability to make those goals seem achievable and desirable.

The third practice is for leaders to innovate in the systems that teams use. To do this, they should seek new ideas by challenging their team with unfamiliar circumstances or researching the ideas of other members and competitors. They can motivate their team through short-term achievable tasks on the way to achieving long-term goals and learning from mistakes instead of being disheartened by them.

In order to accomplish your goals, you have also to give others the knowledge they need so that they can run with their own plans. You must surround yourself with people whose skills are complementary to yours and ensure that those around you are happy and well-composed; this establishes trust. It’s important for leaders to be able to motivate teams without micro-managing or overstepping boundaries, as well as provide them with opportunities for growth while holding themselves accountable within a structure of clear structures and rules.

The final practice for leaders is to encourage optimism. For example, they should recognize excellent work done by individuals and celebrate the group’s success through public celebrations that emphasize commitment to the team’s values.

Leaders who exercise the five practices of exemplary leadership are more likely to lead successful teams. These leaders have a strong sense of self-awareness, as well as humility and courage. They also possess passion for their work, which helps them learn from past successes and failures.

The Leadership Challenge was first published in 1987 and has been revised 25 years later.

Key Takeaways

If you want to be a good leader, you have to be honest and focus on the future. You should also show that you’re competent and inspire people. Above all, you must be credible. The five practices of exemplary leadership are first model the way, then inspire a shared vision, challenge the process (you need to make sure your team is working well), enable others to act (make sure they feel comfortable taking action) and encourage the heart (make them feel like they can do anything).

The first commitment of Modeling the Way is to clarify values. To do that, we must search for and present a set of shared values that everyone will understand and agree to share.

Model the Way holds commitment to Envision both its and your shared vision. It’s also imperative that the leader live a lifestyle representing these values in order to inspire those around him/her. Inspiring the Shared Vision involves finding strategies for teamwork, this must be done in harmony with Modeling The Way, because it hold great importance.