Most Popular Books by James M. Kouzes

The most trusted source of leadership wisdom, updated to address today''s realities The Leadership Challenge is the gold-standard manual for effective leadership, grounded in research and written by the premier authorities in the field. With deep insight into the complex interpersonal dynamics of the workplace, this book positions leadership both as a skill to be learned, and as a relationship that must be nurtured to reach its full potential. This new seventh edition has been revised to address current challenges, and includes more international examples and a laser focus on business issues; you''ll learn how extraordinary leaders accomplish extraordinary things, and how to develop your leadership skills and style to deliver quality results every time. Engaging stories delve into the fundamental roles that great leaders fulfill, and simple frameworks provide a primer for those who seek continuous improvement; by internalizing key insights and putting concepts into action, you''ll become a more effective, more impactful leader. A good leader gets things done; a great leader aspires, inspires, and achieves more. This book highlights the differences between good and great, and shows you how to bridge the chasm between getting things done and making things happen. Gain deep insight into leadership''s critical role in organizational health Navigate the shift toward team-oriented work relationships Motivate and inspire to break through the pervasive new cynicism Leverage the electronic global village to deliver better results Business is evolving at an increasingly rapid rate, and leaders must keep pace with the changes or risk stagnation. People work differently, are motivated differently, and have different expectations today—business as usual is quickly losing its effectiveness. The Leadership Challenge helps you stay current, relevant, and effective in the modern workplace.

A field manual for the gold standard in leadership development books The world’s best leaders consciously reflect on their own behaviors and choices in an effort to continuously better themselves. In the thoroughly revised and updated Fourth Edition of The Leadership Challenge Workbook, renowned leadership educators James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner deliver their latest update to one of the world’s bestselling works on leading others in organizational settings. You’ll find practical guidance on how to apply the insights from The Leadership Challenge to your daily life, as well as hands-on tips for communicating your vision, strengthening workplace commitment, building employee trust, and maintaining worker satisfaction. Based on the insights of the Seventh Edition of James Kouzes and Barry Posner’s The Leadership Challenge, the hands-on experience of the Workbook engages you to examine and improve your ability to put into action The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. The revised Fourth Edition of The Leadership Challenge Workbook will help leaders in every organization to make extraordinary things happen.

The first true revision of the classic book from the bestselling author of The Leadership Challenge As the world falls deeper into economic downturns and warfare, the question of credibility (how leaders gain and lose it) is more important than ever. Building on their research from The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner explore in Credibility why leadership is above all a relationship, with credibility as the cornerstone, and why leaders must "Say what you mean and mean what you say." This first full revision of the book since its initial publication in 1993 features new case studies from around the world, fully updated data and research, and a streamlined format. Written by the premier leadership experts working today, Credibility: Reveals the six key disciplines that strengthen a leader''s capacity for developing and sustaining credibility. Provides rich examples of real managers in action Includes updates to the applications and research This personal, inspiring, and genuine guide helps you understand the fundamental importance of credibility for building personal and organizational success.

Backed by over 20 years of original research, The Leadership Challenge Workshop is a unique and intense discovery process created by best-selling authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. The Workshop demystifies the concept of leadership and approaches it as a learnable set of behaviors. In other words, forget about job titles, forget about position or rank or work experience. Leadership is about what you do. In this non-manager version of the Participant Workbook, Kouzes and Posner introduce individual contributors to The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. The one-day program is about how the "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." The authors'' goal is to "liberate the leader in everyone" with this inspiring, results-oriented Workshop.

Continue Your Leadership Journey With a Deep Dive into Inspire a Shared Vision Over the last twenty-five years, The Leadership Challenge established a reputation as a research-driven, evidence-based leadership development model with a simple, yet profound, principle at its core: leadership is a measurable and learnable set of behaviors. The Challenge Continues program offers you the opportunity to take a deeper dive into the Inspire a Shared Vision leadership practice. Designed for leaders familiar with The Leadership Challenge principles and its Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership foundational model, this new program addresses the important question: "What''s Next?" The second of bestselling authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner''s Five Practices, Inspire a Shared Vision is about: Envisioning the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities Enlisting others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations Your Participant Workbook is a hands-on tool, designed to accompany you on the next phase of your personal leadership development journey. Beginning with a focus on what you have already accomplished and what has gone well with this Practice, the pages then guide you through several interactive exercises and a practical process for expanding and refining your Inspire a Shared Vision skills. You will also explore ways in which can develop your team members and influence the broader spheres of you work unit or organization. Finishing up the module with a detailed action plan, you will leave the session with a detailed map for continuing your journey toward exceptional leadership.

A fresh look at what it means to lead from two of the biggest names in leadership In these turbulent times, when the very foundations of organizations and societies are shaken, leaders need to move beyond pessimistic predictions, trendy fads, and simplistic solutions. They need to turn to what''s real and what''s proven. In their engaging, personal, and bold new book, bestselling authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner reveal ten time-tested truths that discuss what every leader must know, the questions they must be prepared to answer, and the real-world issues they will likely face. In the book, you’ll find: Material based on thirty years of research, more than one million responses to Kouzes and Posner''s leadership assessment, and the questions people most want leaders to answer Explorations of the fundamental, enduring truths of leadership that hold constant regardless of context or circumstance-leaders make a difference, credibility, values, trust, leading by example, heart, and more Demonstrations of emerging leaders and what they need to know to be effective Fans of The Leadership Challenge will find a dynamic new look at the real challenges leaders face today. The book draws from cases spanning three generations of leaders from around the world. It’s an indispensable resource leaders can use to do their real and necessary work-bringing about the essential changes that will renew organizations and communities.

Real-world leadership training for real-world students The Student Leadership Challenge tailors one of the world’s most respected leadership models to students’ unique needs, and provides a proven pathway to success. Based on The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, this book merges solid research with personal stories from real-world student leaders to help students develop the critical skills they need to lead both now and after graduation. Useful from high school to graduate school and beyond, these lessons are reinforced by reflective and critical thinking activities to help students internalize important concepts while honestly assessing their own practices. Updated and expanded, this new third edition includes four extra chapters to allow deeper investigation, while broader, deeper, and more vivid examples from real-life students illustrate what student leadership looks like around the world. New discussion delves into the research behind the model, as well as the usefulness of leadership in the transition to post-graduate life. What does leadership mean to you? Although it may be difficult to put into words, we all know it when we see it. Effective leaders tend to exhibit a specific set of traits, possess certain skills, and practice particular habits. This book helps you hone your natural talents and shape your path to success as the leader you want to become. Learn The Five Practices of Leadership, and how they help you succeed beyond school Discover how students around the world are exhibiting the best in modern leadership Practice critical leadership techniques and engage in thought-provoking discussion Assess your own potential with the Student Leadership Practices Inventory Great leadership is more important than ever before, and students are in a prime position to develop these critical skills. The Student Leadership Challenge provides a comprehensive framework with real-world application to help students become their very best.

Uncover the extraordinary leader in you with straightforward exercises and advice from two of the world’s foremost leadership experts From the bestselling authors of The Leadership Challenge and over a dozen award-winning leadership books comes a new book that examines a question of fundamental importance: How do people learn to become leaders? Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader is a comprehensive guide to unleashing the inner leader in us all and to building a solid foundation for a lifetime of leadership growth and mastery. The book offers a concrete framework to help individuals of all levels, functions, and backgrounds take charge of their own leadership development and become the best leaders they can be. Arguing that all individuals are born with the capacity to lead, bestselling authors Kouzes and Posner provide readers with a practical series of actions and specific coaching tips for harnessing that capacity and creating a context in which they can excel. Supported by over 30 years of research, from over seventy countries, and with examples from real-world leaders, Learning Leadership is a clarion call to unleash the leadership potential that is already present in society today. Learning Leadership provides readers with evidence-based strategies to ignite the habit of continuous improvement and the mindset of becoming the best leaders they can be. Emerging leaders, as well as leadership developers, internal and external coaches and trainers, and other human resource professionals will learn from first-hand stories and practical examples so that they can deeply understand and apply the fundamentals for becoming the best leaders they can be. Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader is divided into digestible bite-sized chapters that encourage daily actions to becoming a better leader. Key takeaways from the book include: Believe in Yourself. Believing in oneself is the essential first step in developing leadership competencies. The best leaders are learners, and they can’t achieve mastery until and unless they truly decide that inside them there is a person who can make and difference and learn to be a better leader than they are right now. Aspire to Excel. To become an exemplary leader, people must determine what they care most about and why they want to lead. Leaders with values-based motivations are the most likely to excel. They also must have a clear image of the kind of leader they want to be in the future—and the legacy they want to leave for others. Challenge Yourself. Challenging oneself is critical to learning leadership. Leaders must seek new experiences and test themselves. There will be inevitable setbacks and failures along the way that require curiosity, grit, courage, and resilience to persist in learning and becoming the best. Engage Support. One can’t lead alone, and one can’t learn alone. It is essential to get support and coaching on the path to achieving excellence. Whether it’s family, managers at work, or professional coaches, leaders need the advice, feedback, care, and support of others. Practice Deliberately. No one gets better at anything without continuous practice. Exemplary leaders spend more time practicing than ordinary leaders. Simply being in the role of a leader is insufficient. To achieve mastery, leaders must set improvement goals, participate in designed learning experiences, ask for feedback, and get coaching. They also put in the time every day and make learning leadership a daily habit. Kouzes and Posner offer unrivaled insights into what it means to become an exemplary leader in today’s world with their original research and over 30 years of experience studying the practices of extraordinary leadership. They show that anyone can become a better leader if they believe in themselves, aspire to excel, challenge themselves to grow, engage the support of others, and practice deliberately. Learning Leadership challenges readers to do the meaningful and disciplined work necessary to becoming the best they can, using a new mindset and toolkit that can make extraordinary things happen. It’s not the once-in-a-while transformational acts that demonstrate leadership. It’s the little things that one does day in and day out that pave the path to greatness.

Leadership is Everyone''s Business Are you ready to seize the opportunities that lead to extraordinary results? Are you ready to inspire others to dream, to encourage their active participation, and to stand beside them when the going gets tough? Are you ready to lead? More than ever our families, our organizations, our communities, our nations, our world is in need of leaders who are willing to take on difficult challenges. An Introduction to The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® will inspire you to do just that—to take the initiative, to seize opportunities, to make a difference. Backed by over 25 years of original research, The Five Practices is an evidence-based leadership development model created by bestselling authors, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. With a simple, yet profound, principle at its core this program demystifies the concept of leadership and approaches it as a measurable, learnable set of behaviors The colorful, interactive pages of this workbook introduce you to the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) self assessment and then take you on a tour of The Five Practices: As you make your way through this workbook, you will discover the immediate and practical applicability of this time-tested leadership program.

An Innovative Tool for Enhancing Vision Skills Throughout 25 years of leadership research, bestselling Leadership Challenge authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have consistently found that Inspire a Shared Vision is the practice that differentiates leaders from other credible people. They''ve also found that, for most leaders, it is the toughest practice. Vision is one of those words that evokes ridicule and awe, cynicism and mystery, confusion and inspiration. It''s one of the most misunderstood words in the leadership lexicon. In The Leadership Challenge, vision is defined as: An IDEAL and UNIQUE IMAGE of the FUTURE for the COMMON GOOD This hands-on workbook is designed to help you get more comfortable and stronger at Inspiring a Shared Vision. It will guide you through the process of developing a clearer picture of that ideal future, and then it will help you to communicate it more effectively to those who can help you implement it. In addition, the workbook contains sections that will enable you to make your team a more forward-thinking group and your organization a more visionary place. And because visions are co-created and shared, there is a section on how to build visionary skills in others. Following the step-by-step process outlined in the book you will be able to: Draft an effective vision statement Craft a persuasive vision presentation Test the presentation Create different versions of the presentation to suit the audience/situation Seek feedback from your audience and evaluate your vision effectiveness Each section contains activities to help you focus on the skills needed to become more adept at looking ahead and creating the workplace and the world you would like to see.

Practice Makes Perfect...or at Least Better In their bestselling book, The Leadership Challenge, authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner present a practical, accessible, and evidence-based leadership model with a simple, yet profound, principle at its core: leadership is a measurable and learnable set of behaviors. Embodied in the book''s foundation model, The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, is the notion that leadership is not an event, but a process that requires ongoing and deliberate practice. This new leadership development tool, The Leadership Challenge Practice Book, serves as a practical daily support resource for leaders looking to extend their Leadership Challenge journey. Incorporating the 30 behaviors from the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), The Leadership Challenge Practice Book presents daily practice routines and activities to help leaders become more effective by increasing the frequency with which they exhibit The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. It is intended to be used as a daily, ongoing practice guide. The book''s five sections follow a Monday through Friday format, with each day offering a different LPI behavior focus and supporting practice activities. Monthly and quarterly practice activities are offered at the end of each section along with a quick progress checklist called Make It a Daily Habit. The Leadership Challenge Practice Book includes everything you need to reinforce a powerful learning experience and enables you to put your leadership skills into action, advancing the projects and people that matter most to you and your work.

Written by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner—two of the foremost experts on the topic of leadership—the Jossey-Bass Academic Administrator''s Guide to Exemplary Leadership clearly shows how anyone can develop the key leadership skills needed "to get extraordinary things done" on their campuses. This important resource outlines the principles and practices that are solidly based in more than two decades of quantitative and qualitative research. The Jossey-Bass Academic Administrator''s Guide to Exemplary Leadership Describes the proven Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership Explains the fundamental principles that support the key leadership practices Provides actual case examples of real people on college and university campuses who demonstrate each practice Offers specific recommendations on what to do to own these practices Shows how to continue to develop as a leader

What do you call something that has endured through nearly 30 years of practice and the scrutiny of research? “The Truth!” —Ken Blanchard, best-selling author of The One-Minute Manager From academia to government, healthcare to technology, faith-based to community advocacy organizations, The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® have stood the test of time as the world’s most trusted source for becoming a better leader. Through decades of research, hundreds of personal interviews, analysis of thousands of case studies and millions of survey responses, authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have discovered what over two million worldwide readers of their modern classic, The Leadership Challenge, know as well: The Five Practices provide a proven, evidence-based model for bringing out the leadership potential in anyone, at any level, in any organization, who accepts the leadership challenge.

Learn how you can tackle everyday leadership challenges regardless of your title, position, or authority with this insightful resource A book about leadership for people who are not in formal or hierarchical leadership positions, Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership provides readers with a comprehensive and practical approach to addressing leadership challenges, no matter the setting or circumstance. Esteemed scholars and sought-after consultants Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner adapt their trademark The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® framework to today’s more horizontal workplace, showing people that leadership is not about where you are in the organization; it’s about how you behave and what you do. Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership draws on the authors’ deep well of research and practical experience to cover key subjects: The essence of making a difference in any role, setting, or situation The difference between positions of authority and leadership The importance of self-development in leadership development This book is perfectly applicable and accessible for anyone who wants to improve their own leadership potential and who isn’t yet in an official leadership role. Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership offers authoritative new insights, original case studies and examples, and practical guidance for those individuals who want to make a difference. You supply the will, and this book will supply the way.

Backed by over 25 years of original research, The Leadership Challenge Workshop is an intense discovery process created by best-selling authors, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. The Workshop demystifies the concepts of leadership and leadership development and approaches it as a measurable, learnable, and teachable set of behaviors, establishing a unique underlying philosophy—leadership is everyone''s business. This Participant Workbook provides everything needed for high-impact workshops for participants.

In this provocative book, leadership experts and authors of the best-selling The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner take on a unique challenge and explore the question of leadership and legacy. Kouzes and Posner examine in twenty-two chapters the critical questions all leaders must ask themselves in order to leave a lasting impact. These powerful essays are grouped into four categories: Significance, Relationships, Aspirations, and Courage. In each essay the authors consider a thorny and often ambiguous issue with which today’s leaders must grapple issues—such as how leaders serve and sacrifice, why leaders need loving critics, why leaders should want to be liked, why leaders can''t take trust for granted, why it’s not just the leader’s vision, why failure is always an option, why it takes courage to “make a life,” how to liberate the leader in everyone, and ultimately, how the legacy you leave is the life you lead.

Expanding on the "Encouraging the Heart" segment of their bestselling The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have now devised The Encouragement Index, a 21-item survey that measures how frequently a leader engages in encouraging behavior. It is designed to be a personal development tool which will give leaders an idea of their strengths and opportunities for improvement in the practice of Encouraging the Heart. The Encouragement Index is also a component of the Encouraging the Heart Facilitator''s Guide, sold separately, which covers administration and debriefing of the Index, as well as tips and techniques for incorporating the existing book and workbook into a short workshop based on the Index.

From the authors of "The Leadership Challenge" comes a workbook to strengthen every leader''s capacity for developing and sustaining credibility. Through practical individual activities, the reader will assemble a blueprint for implementing the principles of credibility in their everyday practice of leadership.

The authors of the classic bestseller The Leadership Challenge bring their expertise to higher education, offering five practices that can make any college or university leader into an exemplary leader. Drawing on the same pioneering research that formed the foundation of their classic bestseller The Leadership Challenge (over 2.7 million copies sold), James Kouzes and Barry Posner offer a set of leadership skills and practices that will make a significant difference in every area of higher education—faculty, administration, library services, career counseling, auxiliary services, campus safety, and more. It’s about the behaviors that leaders, regardless of their position, use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, segments into solidarity, and risks into rewards. Kouzes and Posner tell the leadership story from the inside and move outward, describing it first as a personal journey and then as mobilizing others to want to do things they have never done before. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership is the operating system for this adventure. Leadership in Higher Education explains the fundamental principles that support these practices and provides case examples of people in higher education who demonstrate each one. A core theme that weaves its way through all the chapters is that, whether it’s one to one or one to many, leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. We need leaders who can unite us and ignite us. This book lights the way.

What do you call something that has endured through nearly 30 years of practice and the scrutiny of research? “The Truth!” —Ken Blanchard, best-selling author of The One-Minute Manager From academia to government, healthcare to technology, faith-based to community advocacy organizations, The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® have stood the test of time as the world’s most trusted source for becoming a better leader. Through decades of research, hundreds of personal interviews, analysis of thousands of case studies and millions of survey responses, authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have discovered what over two million worldwide readers of their modern classic, The Leadership Challenge, know as well: The Five Practices provide a proven, evidence-based model for bringing out the leadership potential in anyone, at any level, in any organization, who accepts the leadership challenge.

THE STUDENT LEADERSHIP PRACTICES INVENTORY (Student LPI) is the only leadership tool designed specifically for students and young people. Developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, the second edition of this celebrated instrument package approaches leadership as a measurable, learnable, and teachable set of behaviors. This 360° leadership assessment tool helps students and young people measure their leadership competencies, while guiding them through the process of applying Kouzes and Posner’s acclaimed Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership® model to real-life challenges.