
The Strength Within - Influence is the Soul of Leadership
An extract from my upcoming ebook
In 2002, Jossey Bass published a book by James Kouzes and Barry Posner called The Leadership Challenge. Building upon the Hersey-Blanchard model and other transformational leadership models, they went to the heart of what skills are required by the leader to stimulate such a transformation. What abilities are able to influence followers and bring them to accept the leader’s vision as their own?
An Introduction to Kouzes and Posner
James Kouzes and Barry Posner asked thousands of people to rank list of characteristics associated with leadership, including the seven top qualities that motivated them to follow willingly.
They gave this survey to over 75,000 people over a 20-year period. In their book, The Leadership Challenge, the authors identified five abilities that were crucial to successful leadership:
The Five Abilities Crucial to Successful Leadership
1. Model the Way: You must lead by example. You can’t come into work 10 minutes late every day if you want your employees to arrive on time.
2. Inspire a Shared Vision: If you capture the imagination, you will inspire creative thought and increase loyalty, communicate it effectively for others to adopt it as if it were their own.
3. Challenge the Process: Don’t continue doing something just because “We’ve always done it that way.” Situations change, and sometimes a policy or procedure never worked well in the first place.
4. Enable Others to Act: Truly empower people to act on their own within their level of authority.
5. Encourage the Heart: A positive attitude is infectious. If the leader appears passionate or excited about the vision, others will catch the enthusiasm as well.
An extract from my upcoming ebook
In 2002, Jossey Bass published a book by James Kouzes and Barry Posner called The Leadership Challenge. Building upon the Hersey-Blanchard model and other transformational leadership models, they went to the heart of what skills are required by the leader to stimulate such a transformation. What abilities are able to influence followers and bring them to accept the leader’s vision as their own?
An Introduction to Kouzes and Posner
James Kouzes and Barry Posner asked thousands of people to rank list of characteristics associated with leadership, including the seven top qualities that motivated them to follow willingly.
They gave this survey to over 75,000 people over a 20-year period. In their book, The Leadership Challenge, the authors identified five abilities that were crucial to successful leadership:
The Five Abilities Crucial to Successful Leadership
1. Model the Way: You must lead by example. You can’t come into work 10 minutes late every day if you want your employees to arrive on time.
2. Inspire a Shared Vision: If you capture the imagination, you will inspire creative thought and increase loyalty, communicate it effectively for others to adopt it as if it were their own.
3. Challenge the Process: Don’t continue doing something just because “We’ve always done it that way.” Situations change, and sometimes a policy or procedure never worked well in the first place.
4. Enable Others to Act: Truly empower people to act on their own within their level of authority.
5. Encourage the Heart: A positive attitude is infectious. If the leader appears passionate or excited about the vision, others will catch the enthusiasm as well.