In the introduction to Learning Leadership, the authors—James
M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner-- share an anecdote. They typically ask a group
of 50 people who have come together for leadership development, “How many of
you think of yourself as a leader?” Usually
only about 10 percent raise their hands.
Most participants fail to think of themselves as leaders. This book is designed to help individuals to
break the mythological barrier that leadership is only reserved for a special few.
If you have read the authors’ The Leadership Challenge or
Christian Reflections on The Leadership Challenge, you are familiar with their
model of The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership and their Leadership
Practices Inventory (LPI). There is
little new here as far as the model goes, but the purpose of this volume to
serve as a self-directed guide to becoming an exemplary leader based on the
model.
Each chapter is short enough to be read in a few minutes,
but every chapter concludes with “The Key Message and Action” summary and a “Self-Coaching
Action” or exercise. One of the best of
the coaching assignments is the L.I.F.E. exercise at the end of chapter 8 where
the reader is asked to project himself or herself into the future ten years and
receiving a Leader of the Year award.
The reader is asked to consider the Lessons, Ideals, Feelings, and
Expressions that people will say about her or him. What makes people think of the person as a
leader? As a result, the reader starts
to develop a path that might attain that status.
The great strength of the book is that it articulates principles
that I think are basic to a coach approach to personal (and leadership) development:
- Embracing a growth mindset.
- Clarifying personal values.
- Commitment to moving forward.
- Developing support systems.
- Learning from failure.
- Embracing meaningful feedback.
- Recognizing that lasting change takes time.
Learning Leadership will be a helpful resource for personal
study or part of a group discussion.
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