Leadership Development: Take the Leadership Challenge®
Wondering If Leaders Can Be Created?
Over the last twenty five years, The Leadership Challenge has established a reputation as a research-driven, evidence-based leadership development program with a simple, yet profound, principle at its core: leadership is a measurable, learnable, and teachable set of behaviors. The Five Practices of Exemplary® Leadership resulted from an intensive research project by leadership experts James Kouzes and Barry Posner to determine the leadership competencies that are essential to getting extraordinary things done in organizations. The study found that when leaders are at their personal best they:
- Model the Way: Leaders clarify values by finding their voices and affirming shared ideals, and they set the example by aligning their actions with shared values.
- Inspire a Shared Vision: Leaders envision the future by imaging exciting and ennobling possibilities, and they enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.
- Challenge the Process: Leaders search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and looking outward for innovative ways to improve, and they experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.
- Enable Others to Act: Leaders foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships, and they strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence.
- Encourage the Heart: Leaders recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence, and they celebrate values and victories by creating a spirit of community.
The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) was developed to help leaders assess the extent to which they actually use these practices so that they can make plans for improvement.
Across continents, these Five Practices have survived the test of time. The context may have changed since Kouzes and Posner began their work more that twenty five years ago, but the content has remained constant. Leadership is set of skills and abilities that can be learned by almost anyone who has the desire and commitment to improve.
The Leadership Challenge can be conducted as a one, two, or three-day workshop, one-on-one program, or as a combination of both approaches. The Leadership Challenge works well in conjunction with the Team Building program.
