The Leadership Challenge by Posner and Kouzes - Book Report/Review Example

Leadership An experiential case study leadership without shared vision/mission ment Introduction Many leaders often have various pointers to evaluate their success in their leadership capacity. Kouzes and Posner have produced a very important resource to the people in charge of organisations and institutions, called The Leadership Resource. Kouzes and Posner’s book was first published in 1987 and contains five distinct chapters that clarify and explain their proposed their five practises involved in exemplary leadership. The book aims at making the leaders of the various organisations to adopt the best ways of practice on leadership with the aim of strengthening their leadership abilities and skills. For a leader to have exemplary performance, they should adopt the following five practises; 1. Model the way 2. Inspiration of a shared vision 3. Challenging the Process 4. Enabling others to Act 5. Encourage the heart It is brought out clearly that these five elements are not components that are engraved in a leader’s personality but they are a set of behaviours that can be adopted by any individual that practises this mode of governance (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Other than the five practises outlined, there is the existence of a set of the ten commitments that a leader should affirm to. Kouzes and Posner therefore are able to merge the ten commitments with the five practises with the aim of real-life successes and how the various leaders applied this concept. This report however is going to use the Kouzes and Posner principles to analyse a situation in which an organisation is led on an experimental basis without a shared mission or vision. It is very difficult for an organisation to come up without a direction. A mission and a vision statement are one of the most fundamental elements that act as pillars of an organisation. It is through them that a company derives its objectives. However, the report does not ignore the fact that it is possible to have a type of leadership that is very experimental, trying out new things in different product lines from time to time (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Such businesses always exist if there is a onetime demand. It may be very difficult for a firm of this calibre to thrive in an economy full of corporates that have an experienced type of leadership and well-structured mission and vision statements. The Leadership Challenge: A theoretical Framework Kouzes and Posner (2012) were curious to know what actions people undertook when they were at their best in terms of leading others. Through their research, they discovered a big similarity in their modes of governance across leaders of various sectors which included; countries, professions and industries. Their leadership accomplishments that they had marked as exceptional yielded the same output. For any service-based or profit based organisation, effective leadership is a vital component of its management. When the managers suffer from the inability to perform coaching and training, offer direction and motivation for the staff members, the morale and the organisational culture is put at jeopardy. There are several effects that can be attributed to a visionless company which is a key characteristic of poor leadership. There are various indicators that are characteristic of an experimental and visionless/mission less type of leadership. One of these indicators is the existence of poor financial records. This is often attributed to lack of goal achievement (Daft, 2014). There is no commitment to the individual jobs, the company as a whole nor its vision since it lacks the proper directions and targets that it should achieve. There is also no synergy among the employees. The employees are left to wonder where their energy should be focussed more so that to yield maximum returns. This often leads to the neglect ion of duties and roles allocated and assigned to them. Lack of the interdepartmental competition contributes largely to the diminishing of the returns of the company. As a result of this, there is low morale. Morale will only exist off the employees have a sense of where the company is headed to. The presence of a score sheet which can be used to evaluate performance and objective achieved. The presence of pointers acts as a way of achieving the company objectives. It therefore becomes very tricky if the company is based on seasonal performances rather than aggregates that show a clear performance line over various financial times. Elements of the Book In their book, ‘The Leadership Challenge’, Kouzes & Posner (2012) have divided the book into seven parts. Part 1 of the book introduces the Posner’s and Kouzes framework of leadership. The five practises that constitutes to the exemplary leadership performance are introduced in this section and emphasis is laid on the nature of leadership. They also insist on the fact that employer and employee relationships are very crucial in achieving goals that would otherwise be declared unattainable. The leadership process has its constituents which are very critical in the achievement of the company’s objectives. It insists on the fact that there are some specific that it’s that must be possessed by a visionary leader. These traits include; competency, honesty and the ability to be visionary in looking for future employees of the firm. It insists on striking trust with rye employees as a way of achieving of various company goals. They also state their second rule of leadership which is, “Do What You Say You Will Do” –DWYSYWD (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Part 2 of the book gives an explanation of the first five practises that should be adopted by a good leader. This is ‘Model the Way’. Posner and Kouzes insist on the fact that it is important to sit down as a leader with various stake holders with the aim of coming up with a unique path or direction the company is going to follow. To achieve this, the leaders must make the objective look personal by incorporating the Management by Objective principle. One the business unit managers develop a mentality that they own the departments or the units they represent, they are most likely to yield much returns. Various leaders like the Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates have shown commitments to their teams (Morrill, 2010). That is why Microsoft is at the forefront in market value and sales. In part 3 of the book, Inspiration of a shared vision is promoted. It is also accompanied by “Envisioning the future” and “Enlisting” types of commitment. Envisioning the future is weighing the options of the company existing at a later date. It is also important for a leader to have a vision for the company (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). It will act as guidance to the employees and he will also be able to measure his performance on a relative scale. Visionless leaders are those who come up with contingency measures only when the company has had a major crisis. Kouzes and Posner (2012) explain the third practice in their book which insists on searching for opportunities. A leader should make commitments, take risks and experiment it is through this efforts that he will expose his business entity to more opportunities that are beneficial. A leader must exercise outsight and be the vision of the organization as it is the only way that will enable him seize initiative. A good leader should be forward minded and foresee the future position of the organization. To be successful the leader needs to creative and innovative in developing solutions of the challenges that the organization faces (Lewis et al, 2006). This means that he should research and consult so that he is in a position to prepare for the possible challenges. He should also promote and allow communication between his employees and the outside world. This will enable the employees to network and gain more information about their position and roles. They will also be updated and be able to keep up with the current business trends. It will also give the organization an upper hand against its competitors. Enhancing communication with the outside world will also lead to formulation of new ideas. According to Posner and Kouzes, a leader should create and facilitate an environment where the employees are encouraged to take risks. The best way to create this climate is through generating small wins and achievements. A series of smaller level programming is developed to generate larger results or allow learning from experience since challenges will be accepted to be a learning experience (Komives, Lucas & McMahon, 2013). The leader should know that failure is an important step to success as the leader has to learn from both failure and success in order to progress. As a leader it is important to consider ethical aspects of implementing change due to various reasons. A leader should consider the; values, attitudes, diversity and beliefs in the organization before implementing change. The leaders should be ethical in the implementation so that they are able to accommodate every person in the change (Collard & Normore, 2009). Ethical implementation of change makes people in the organization to take the change positively despite their differences and diversity. A leader being ethical will enable the people in an organization embrace the change without bias or discrimination. Ethical aspects give all parties equal chance to be involved from the change. Some of the ethical challenges a leader might face when implementing change are discrimination based on race, age, income, location, religion and gender. Demographic and social differences are also major aspects that pose ethical challenges to a leader (Morrill, 2010). A leader has to consider all the behaviours and beliefs of all the people concerned for the change to be positive and beneficial to all. Some leaders also face the challenge of corruption making the change to be unfair to some parties. An example is when a leader only involves people of his race and gender in his change process and he despises the other relevant parties. Factors that should be considered when preparing employees for a change are the demographic differences among them. The leaders should consider the diversity, values, beliefs and attitudes of their employees as they prepare them for ethical change. The leaders should ensure the change involves every employee regardless of the race, gender and income. The leader should solicit the involvement of the employees by enhancing communication and openness (Collard & Normore, 2009). This will enable him get feedback and allow the employees participate in the change. The leaders should be transparent to the employees and allow for their contributions, comments and criticisms. An example of change where employee involvement was solicited is when there was recruitment of female employees in the company so as to balance the gender ratio. Previously the company’s management team was made up of males but for a change the company decided to employ women. The candidates were vetted by some of the employees and the move was supported by all employees. The involvement of employees was effective in ensuring gender equality and the process was transparent and fair as it involved all employees. Leading and managing innovation is an effective way of managers ensuring that their firms keep up with the dynamic advancement and inventions of technology. Successful management of change has positive effects on business organizations. It involves the monitoring of deployment process of the technical innovation. Because there is nothing as certain as change, managers and leaders of organizations have to employ strategies that can enable them manage the change effectively. First they have to accept change and acknowledge that it is constant and manageable. With the dynamic technology driven economy, the managers should expect change, quickly adopt and keep up. The managers should practice openness where they keep the staff alert and aware of the possible changes prone to the company. The managers should establish a trust environment through open-door policies and allowing a two way feedback (Daft, 2014). The managers should have the willingness to listen to all feedback non-defensively. The leader should also promote solicit input where they welcome and allow the employees’ input. This is because employees only oppose change which they have no chance to influence. Allowing the employees input makes them accept and appreciate the reasons for change and innovativeness. In most cases, the business usually benefit from the insights and contributions of the employees. The employees’ insights should be considered as they are on the frontline in meeting customer expectations and preferences. The managers should also provide constant training for the employees (Komives, Lucas & McMahon, 2013). The leaders should assess the knowledge and skill level of employees to determine if they are ready for change. Employees should receive appropriate and relevant training so that they get ready and equipped to meet the requirement and demands of the new innovation or change. This is important as adopting to change require mastering of new skills and processes. Posner and Kouzes also insist that a leader should enable and encourage the employees to act. This allows for the combination of the employee commitments, strengthening others and fostering collaboration. The leader should do this by promoting trust and facilitating healthy relationships within the team. If he shows trust for the team members, the other team members will follow suit. Relationships between the employees should be enhanced through face to face communication with the employees. The leader should also encourage joint responsibility and efforts on projects (Collard & Normore, 2009). This enhances self-determination, confidence and competence among the employees. The leader should know that greater power comes with giving power away hence he should give the team members power in order to increase accountability and optimal results. The final lead to a leader by kouzes and Posner is that he should encourage the hearts of the employees. He should recognize contributions and reward achievement. He should celebrate victories and values of the employees. He should have high expectations for the team members and encourage them to be result oriented. Rewarding employees makes them to feel appreciated and it also promotes them to work hard. Conclusion Posner and Kouzes insist that leadership does not only entail innate skills and behavior, but it is a skill that is learned and improved upon over time and experience. According to them, the most important aspect of leadership is love. This is because they believe leadership is an affair of the heart and not the head. References Daft, R. (2014). The Leadership Experience. New Yoork: Cengage Learning. James M. Kouzes, B. Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. John Collard, A. H. (2009). Leadership and Intercultural Dynamics. New York: IAP. Morrill, R. L. (2010). Strategic Leadership: Integrating Strategy and Leadership in Colleges and Universities. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Pamela Lewis, S. G. (2006). Management: Challenges for Tomorrows Leaders. New York: Cengage Learning. Susan R. Komives, N. L. (2013). Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More