Leadership

I find that pretty much most of the things in The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner (www.theleadershipchallenge.com) are pretty relevant to what we understand about leadership. I will be sharing parts of the book from time to time and share some thoughts.

From the Preface (The Leadership Challenge):

The Leadership Challenge is about how leaders mobilize others to want to get extraordinary things done in organizations. It’s about the practices leaders use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards. It’s about leadership that creates the climate in which people turn challenging opportunities into remarkable success.

There are no shortages of challenging opportunities. In these extraordinary times, the challenges seem only to be increasing in number and complexity. All generations confront their own serious threats and receive their own favourable circumstances. The abundance of challenges is not the issue. It’s how we respond to them that matters. Through our responses to challenges, we all have the potential to seriously worsen or profoundly improve the world in which we live and work. With the kinds of leadership excellence we’ve observed in over twenty-five years of research, we’re going to bet on the latter.

There are countless opportunities for each of us to make a difference. For instance, there are opportunities to



• Provide direction and support to our teams during uncertain times

• More fully utilize the talents of our colleagues

• Set a positive example of what honesty and ethics mean in daily life

• Tap the wealth of scientific knowledge to create a safer and more
sustainable world

• Rebuild a sense of community and increase understanding among diverse peoples

• Bring peace to a world tired of war

• Restore hope and create a deeper sense of meaning in our lives



…What we have discovered, and rediscovered, is that leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It is a process ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others. When the leader is liberated, extraordinary things happen.

(To be continued...)