Leadership Challenge, by Kouzes and Posner Essay

Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.

For centuries leaders have been analyzed in order to determine what the traits and characteristics of a successful leader are. Leadership, as defined by Koontz and Weihrich (2008) is “the art or a process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals” (p. 311). Leadership plays an important role in employee’s participation, creativity, recruitment to an organization, their commitment to the organization, and productivity levels. Over the years, there have been a number of theories surrounding leadership such as the “Great Man” theory, which, according to Riaz and Haider (2010), “assumes that leaders are born and have innate qualities, therefore, leaders

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

There are five different practices of exemplary leadership: Model the Way, Inspire A Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others To Act, and Encourage the Heart. Not all of these practices need to be done at the same time, however, they also don’t need to be displayed alone either. Depending on the situation and people involved different methods can be more profitable than others.

The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership are important to all good leaders and good practices to instill in themselves and others. They are Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. If one incorporates these five practices they are sure to be a good leader. For me personally, I feel, Model the Way, is the most important. As I discuss my reasons why I feel it is the most important, you may end up feeling the same way.

These practices would become more commonly known as the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, which include: Modeling the Way, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Challenging the Process, Enabling Others to Act and Encouraging the Heart (Posner, 2004).

Before this class, I had a very primitive and vague definition of leadership. Not only did I define it as per my views and ideologies, but I also said that each individual has their own definition of leadership. My initial belief was that leadership does not have a clear cut definition, but there were well defined leadership traits which made an individual. I also initially believed that personal traits did not translate into leadership traits with no strong correlation. After going through the various modules this class offered, it is safe to say that I have significantly redefined leadership and underwent a strong personal assessment. This paper talks what I took back from each of the class activities, assignments and how my self-assessment compares to the perception of others.

There seems to be a long standing fascination with what makes a leader. Studies dating back to 1869 attempt to identify the characteristics these “extraordinary individuals” possess. (McCkleskey, 2014). However, what these studies have found over the years, is that there isn’t one set of common characteristics found when leaders are compared; there isn’t that one “thing” that stands apart. (Great Man article). One of the biggest questions still remaining from all those studies is, “what is leadership?” Rost (1995) states that while there are several problems in studying leadership, the first problem is there is no commonly accepted definition or everyone is expected to use their own. Rost goes on to state that 300 people reading the

The Leadership Challenge, was introduced by James M. Kouzes and Berry Z. Posner. It is widely accepted, and evidence based supported leadership model that has developed over nearly two decades of research. While some seem to think that leadership only applies to those persons at the head of a company or organization, that is not the case. Leadership is everyone’s business and a process that people use daily to accomplish extraordinary things while putting forth their best effort and enabling others to do the same. People can achieve extraordinary things when everyone’s leadership capabilities are tapped into. In leadership, honesty is an important virtue, as in leaders serve as role models for their subordinates. Honesty goes along way and is synonymous with other moral characteristics for a leader to include: integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness. These characteristics create trust, which is critical for leaders in all positions.

Leadership has been conceived of in a multitude of different ways varying from Great man theory (Borgatta, Bales and Couch, 1954; Cawthon, 1996), trait theories (), and style theories (). More recent conceptualizations of leadership include contingency theory (), and transformational leadership (). Each of these theoretical models has a contribution to make in forming a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between leadership and

Now I challenge my earlier assumption and I would like to present five practices of exemplary leadership and examples on how I applied these practices in last two years. I would demonstrate effectiveness of each practice.

One of the topics in organizational development today is leadership. Leadership is what individuals do to mobilize other people in organizations and communities. According to Kouzes & Posner, there are five practices and ten commitments of exemplary leadership. The five practices of exemplary leadership include: Model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. In the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner found similar patterns and actions of leadership that created the essentials to achieve success. Utilizing the research conducted by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, I have created a leadership plan that would apply to the Admission Department at Texas Wesleyan University.

The question ‘’ what makes a great man?’’ has been asked over and over again. Being in a leadership post does not automatically qualify a person to be a leader. One has to be an effective leader to be considered successful. This brings to mind the great nature versus nurture question. Is it possible for a leader to be made and not born? To answer this question, a study looked at the traits that are considered to make a leader effective and thus great (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991).

Porter-O’Grady (2010) defines leadership as “a multifaceted process of identifying a goal, motivating other people to act, and providing support and motivation to achieve mutually negotiated goals’. Early theorists considered leadership characteristics innate (Nahavandi, 2006), and that these traits were differed from that of the followers’ (Winkler, 2010). Purpose, courage, confidence and ability were among the list of characteristics most leaders possess (Grimm, 2010). Other studies suggested that, despite

For decade’s individuals, companies, and organizations have spent an unprecedented amount of money on researching, molding, modeling and working to define what a leader is and what characteristics make successful leaders. Despite all the research, there is not a quick answer or even full agreement as to what makes an individual an effective leader. The definition of a leader is “someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.” (Robbins, Decenzo, Coulter, 2015. P.370)