Kouzes and posner said these leaders would
PRACTICE
Model the way
COMMITMENT
1. find your voice by clarifying your personal values
2. set the example by aligning actions with and ennobling possibilities
PRACTICE
Inspire a shared vision
PRACTICE
3. envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities
4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations
PRACTICE
Challenge the process
COMMITMENT
5. Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow and improve
6. Experiment and take risk by constantly generating small wins and leaning from mistake
PRACTICE
Enable others to act
COMMITMENT
7. Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust
8. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion
PRACTICE
Encourage the heart
COMMITMENT
9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence
10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community
These practices are available to anyone who wants to learn them. They can be the blueprint for someone to follow so they can rise to a leadership position and then be n effective leader.
Model the way
employee take their cue from the top. If the leader of business has a certain style and personality, you can bet it will be reflected, for better or for worse, throughout the company, from vice presidents right down to the receptionist.
Kouzes and Posner believe that “credibility is the foundation of leadership. The most frequent response by employees when asked how they know if a leader has credibility is that credible leaders do what they say they will do. “A judgment of ‘credible’ is handed down when words and deeds are consonant,” Kouzes and Posner write. “if people don’t see consistency, they conclude that the leader is, at best, not really serious or, at worst, an outright hypocrite.”
Leadership requires letting everyone in the company know your ideas on what is important for the company. The leader needs to set the example in both skills and values to property mutative the employees looking to him or her for direction. If they don’t. the people they are counting on will lose faith in them. A leader must set a good example.
Inspire a shared vision
some believe the most important job of a leader to create a vision, a dream, a goal whatever word you put upon the forward thinking force that invents a potentially new future. The importance of having a vision was stated succinctly by business author Harvey Mackey, Who is still the king of business bromides, when he observed “If you don’t have a destination, you’ll never get there. Sometimes reaching the goal requires a change in direction. As the Pogo comic strip once famously warned, if you don’t make that required change, you’re going to end up exactly at the unhappy conclusion that you are heading for. And we already saw the Cheshire Cat’s opinion in the previous chapter about people who do not have a clear idea how to reach their goal.
Leaders live their lives in the future, creating goals and breathing life into them with intense personal commitment.
But vision alone is not sufficient. A person with no followers is not a leader , and people will not become followers until they accept the leader’s vision as their own. You cannot forever just order obedience, except possibly in the military. Even in the military, however, and especially in business, the most effective leadership will come from inspiring commitment among the followers about the vision. Leaders work to turn their vision holds for the future. Leaders get others to join in their dream by showing how all will be served by common purpose.
People must believe their leader understands their needs and has their interests at heart as well as the interests of the company. No one will work with any commitment, at least not for long, If they come to believe the only reward is for the leader alone.
Challenge the process
Leaders are willing to take calculated risks, to try ideas for the first time or even pick up failed ideas and use a new approach that might work this time. They are relentless in finding new ways to do things, in exploring new ideas, in challenging the status quo.
Everyone makes mistakes, and CEOs are no exception. But William Dean singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group, said the risk of failure should never frighten a leader away from making a risk that thought out and considered worth the chance of failure. The secret Singletion said, is to “fail fast and fall cheap.”
Here is where we encounter one of the major differences often seen between entrepreneurs and managers. Entrepreneurs often are not always good mangers, but many good managers are not always willing to accept the risks required to be entrepreneurs.