Literature of Leadership - January Book Review

THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE: HOW TO MAKE EXTRAORDINARY THINGS HAPPEN IN ORGANIZATIONS (6th Edition). James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. (2017, Kindle Edition)

“The domain of leaders is the future. The work of leaders is change. The most significant contribution leaders make is not to today's bottom line; it is to the long-term development of people and institutions so they can adapt, change, prosper, and grow.” (Kouzes and Posner, 2017)

Written by premier authorities in the field, this book is the sixth edition of the gold-standard primer on effective leadership, The Leadership Challenge. Kouzes and Posner are internationally renown for their research on exemplary leadership and the creation of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® framework. This framework, along with the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)—a 360-degree survey—and related resources are used in leadership programs worldwide, including that of The Chair Academy.

The Five Practices reflect the essential behaviors employed when leaders do their best—i.e., they “Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.” Accordingly, the book is structured to address the essential leadership behaviors, called “commitments”, that undergird the Five Practices and that enable leaders to “transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards.

This new edition presents a contemporized framework, updated content, real-world illustrations and actionable suggestions on how effective leaders can make a positive difference in addressing current day challenges. If you have the “will” to meet the leadership challenge of moving beyond the ordinary to extraordinary, this book supplies the “way”. A must read for leaders at all levels!