Model the Way

Inspire a Shared Vision

THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner – coauthors of
The Leadership Challenge

 One of top 10 books on leadership of all time

 Won the James A. Hamilton Hospital Administrators’
Book-of-the-Year Award
 Won the Critics’ Choice Award from the nation’s book
review editors
 Was a BusinessWeek best-seller
 Has sold over 1.8 million copies in more than twenty
languages
 Practical
 Inspirational
 Evidence-based
 Personal-best
experiences
The Five Practices of
Exemplary Leadership
 Model the Way
 Inspire a Shared Vision
 Challenge the Process
 Enable Others to Act
 Encourage the Heart
Ten Commitments of
Leadership
 Behaviors that serve as the basis for
learning to lead
 Two commitments in each of the five
practices
 By using these commitments, leaders get
extraordinary things done
Credibility: The Foundation
of Leadership

“Credibility is in the eyes of other people; it is

they who proclaim you as a leader.”
Carrie Gilstrap, Hewlett-Packard
(Kouzes & Posner,2007)
Consistent Characteristics
Identified in an Admired
Leader:
 Honest
 Forward-looking
 Inspiring
 Competent
The Kouzes-Posner First and
Second Laws of Leadership

1. If you don’t believe in the messenger, you

won’t believe the message.
2. DWYSYWD: Do What You Say You Will
Do.
“ To gain and sustain the
moral authority to lead, it’s
essential to Model the
Way.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007)
Model the Way
 Clarify Values
 Set the Example

…..please think of an historical leader whom

you greatly admire
Two Most Frequently
Mentioned Leaders:
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Martin Luther King Jr.
Others who made the list:
Aung San Suu Kyi, Susan B. Anthony, Benzai Bhutto, Cesar Chavez,
Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachev, Miguel
Hidalgo, Nelson Mandela, Golda Meir, His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
J. Robert Oppenheimer, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Margaret
Thatcher, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
What These Leaders Have in
Common:
 Strong beliefs about matters of principle

“People admire most those who believe

strongly in something, and who are willing to
stand up for their beliefs.” (Kouzes & Posner,
2007)
Essentials You Must Engage
in to Clarify Values:

 Find Your voice

 Affirm Shared Values
Know What You Care About
 Finding your voice…
* explore your inner territory
* daily clarify and reaffirm your values
(means and ends)
* recognize that personal values clarity
drives commitment
* say it in your own words
Ponder the Foundation of
Positive Relationships
 Affirm Shared Values
* provides people with a common
language
* intensifies commitment, enthusiasm,
and drive
* decreases stress and tension
* increases creativity
* encourages teamwork
Central Themes in Values of
Highly Successful, Strong
Culture Organizations
 High performance standards
 A caring attitude about people
 A sense of uniqueness and pride

“These three common threads seem to be

critical to weaving a values tapestry that leads
to greatness.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007)
The Leadership Challenge- Bird’s Eye View
(Ward, 2009)
Leadership Practices Inventory
People who frequently demonstrate LPI behaviors
are perceived by others as:

 Being more effective in meeting job-related demands

 Being more successful in representing their units to upper
management
 Creating higher-performing teams
 Fostering loyalty and commitment
 Increasing motivational levels and willingness to work hard
 Reducing absenteeism, turnover, and dropout rates
 Possessing high degrees of personal credibility

Suggested web site:

http://consummatecoaching.com/images/LPI-WB_book.pdf
Essentials You Must Engage
in to Set the Example:

 Personify the Shared Values

 Teach Others to Model the Values
Signal-Sending Opportunities
to Make Your Commitment
Visible to Others:
 Spend your time and attention wisely
 Watch your language
 Ask purposeful questions
 Seek feedback

Shared values become personified.

Ways to Teach Others to
Model the Values:
 Confront critical Incidents
 Tell Stories
 Reinforce the behavior you want
repeated
Inspire A Shared Vision
 Envision the Future
 Enlist Others

“To be able to describe a compelling

image of the future, you have to be
able to grasp what others want and
need.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2006)
Do I See What Others See?
 Leadership Practices Inventory – six of the
thirty questions measure a leader’s
effectiveness at inspiring a shared vision
 This consistently shows as the leadership
practice that leaders do the least
effectively

WHY?
Reasons...
 People and organizations are hostage to the
present
 Fast pace of change
 Increased complexity of problems
 Frightening uncertainty in the world
 Most leaders are overworked
What Can We Do to Overcome
These Things?

 Be more mindful in the present first

 Stop, look, and listen

“The best leaders are and have been

those who are the best observers of the
human condition. They just pay more attention
than everyone else to all that’s around them.”
(Kouzes & Posner, 2006)
THEN ...
 Explore Future
Possibilities
Essentials You Must Engage
in to Envision the Future:
 Imagine the Possibilities
 Find a Common Purpose
Imagine the Possibilities

 Reflect on your past

 Attend to the present
 Prospect the future
 Feel your passion

“ Search your past to find the recurring theme

in your life.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007)
Find a Common Purpose

 Listen deeply to others

 Determine what’s meaningful to
others
 Make it a cause for commitment
 Be forward-looking in times of rapid
change
Essentials You Must Engage
in to Enlist Others:
 Appeal to Common Ideals
 Animate the Vision

“In our research we found that when leaders

effectively communicate a vision – whether
it’s to one person, a small group, or a large
organization – constituents report significantly higher levels
of job satisfaction, motivation, commitment, loyalty, team spirit,
productivity, and profitability.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007)
Appeal to Common Ideals

 Connect to what’s meaningful to

others
 Take pride in being unique
 Align your dream with the people’s
dream
Animate the Vision

 Use symbolic language

 Make images of the future
 Practice positive communication
 Express your emotions
 Speak from the heart
Leadership is Everyone’s
Business
 You are the most important leader in your
organization
 Leadership is learned
 Leaders make a difference
 First lead yourself
 Moral leadership calls us to higher purposes
 Humility sets the groundwork for resolving
the conflicts and contradictions of
leadership
“The best kept secret of successful leaders is
love: staying in love with leading, with the
people who do the work, with what their
organizations produce, and with those who
honor the organization by using its products
and services.” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007)
Whose Visions Are These?

1. To have a computer on every desk.

2. Land a man on the moon and safely return
him to earth by the end of (this) decade.
3. All men will be judged by the merit of their
character, not by the color of their skin.
4. Low prices, Low costs
5. To become the most competitive enterprise in
the world by being number one or number two
in market share in every business the company
is in.
“Leadership begins with something that
grabs hold of us and won’t let go. And this
‘something’ will only be found when we are
willing to take a journey through our inner
territory – a journey that often requires
opening doors that are shut, walking in dark
spaces that are frightening, and touching
the flame that burns. But at the end is
truth.”
(Kouzes and Posner, 2006)
References

About the authors. (2000-2010). .

Chesky, K. (2009). CLO Magazine
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2006). A leader's legacy. Jossey-Bass.
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge.
Jossey-Bass.
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2001). What the lPI measures (p.9).
Retrieved from Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer:
http://consummatecoaching.com/images/LPI-WB_book.pdf
The leadership challenge - bird's eye view. (2009, June 30).
Retrieved from
http://manyminds.typepad.com/manyminds/2009/06/the-
leadershipchallenge-birds-eye-
view.htmlhttp://www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/Sec
tion/id-131089.html
Leadership practices inventory. (2002-2008). Retrieved from
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.:
http://www.lpionline.com/lpi_individual.html
The lPI. (2000-2010). Retrieved February 17, 2010, from John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.:
http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-
131089.html