Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are authors of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge. Kouzes is Chairman Emeritus of the Tom Peters Company and an Executive Fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Posner is Dean of the Leavey School of Business and Professor of Leadership at Santa Clara University (Silicon Valley, California). Kouzes and Posner are also authors of Creditability, Encouraging the Heart, and The Leadership Planner. Their 360-degree leadership assessment instrument, The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and LPI Online (wwwlpionline.com) has helped develop the leadership of nearly 1 million people. Combined, these offering truly make them the most trusted sources on becoming a better leader. Kouzes lives in San Jose, California and Posner lives in Monte Sereno, California.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The Student Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), Observer Instrument, (2 Page Insert)

Jossey-Bass

Chapter One

Leadership is everyone's business. That's the conclusion we have come to after over two decades of research into the behaviors and actions of people who are making a difference in organizations, clubs, teams, classes, schools, campuses, communities, and even in their families. We found that leadership is an observable, learnable set of practices.

Contrary to some myths, leadership is not a mystical and ethereal process that cannot be understood by ordinary people. Given the opportunity for feedback and practice, those with the desire and persistence to lead-to make a difference-can substantially improve their ability to do so.

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) is part of an extensive research project into the everyday actions and behaviors of people, at all levels and across a variety of settings, as they are leading. Through our research we identified The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership(r) that are common to all leadership experiences. In collaboration with others, we extended our original findings to student leaders and to school and college environments and created the student version of the LPI.

The Student LPI is a tool, not a test, designed to assess your current leadership skills. It will identify your areas of strength as well as areas of leadership that need to be further developed.

The Student LPI helps you discover the extent to which you (in your role as a leader of a student group or organization) engage in the following Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders:

Model the Way

Leaders are clear about their personal values and beliefs. They keep people and projects on course by behaving consistently with these values and setting an example for how they expect others to act. By focusing on key priorities, they make it easier for others to achieve goals.

The commitments of leaders to Model the Way involve

Finding your voice by clarifying your personal values

Setting the example by aligning actions with shared values

While Jason Hegland was the captain of his water polo team, he learned the hard way about how to be the team leader: "First, I was just plain bossy. I was also stubborn. Things were supposed to go my way. Worst of all, I didn't show anyone else what they meant to the team as a whole. I cut people down when I should have built them up." Luckily, early in the season, a teammate brought these flaws to his attention, and, to his credit, Jason reflected on what was really important and quickly made changes, in his words, "to show everyone how a real captain acts."

One of the first things he did was to get himself to school every day at 5:00 A.M. for practice. When he saw other players during the day, he would ask them why they weren't at practice. Soon enough, Jason said, "The message about practices sunk in and we had 100 percent attendance." He also opened up communications. Every day he asked his teammates: "What didn't we do well yesterday that we need to work on today?" He asked those who were better players than he was what he needed to do to improve himself. Furthermore, Jason stopped focusing on errors and became the "head cheerleader" for the team, mentioning at each postgame meeting at least one good thing that each of his teammates had done.

As for results, Jason pointed out that, while the changes he made in his leadership style didn't lead his team to the state championship, it was the first time that any school from a Chicago suburb placed within the top ten, and most importantly, he said, "That year the team members were the closest that they had ever been to one another." The lesson for Jason: "I learned that those who follow you are only as good as the model you present them with."

Inspire a Shared Vision

Leaders look toward and beyond the horizon. They envision the future with a positive and hopeful outlook. Leaders are expressive and attract other people to their organizations and teams through their genuineness. They communicate and show others how their interests can be met through commitment to a common purpose.

The commitments of leaders to Inspire a Shared Vision involve

Envisioning the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities

Enlisting others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations

The insight for Filip Morovich was learning that "leadership is not about being the great heroic solver of all problems; it is about inspiring people to believe that the problem can be solved by working together." In one of Filip's courses, the assignment was to produce a one-hour musical play (with singing, dancing, and all the rest!). Pretty much everyone in the class was afraid and daunted by this task because few of them had any theater experience or particular acting talents. Filip described the scene: "The group was adrift and everyone was sitting around staring at one another in stark silence. I got very angry inside, and at that instant I had a vision. A real flash of lightning in my mind made it clear to me that we could be successful. But at this point it was only my idea, only my flash of inspiration, and so I had to share it and make it a common belief among us all."

He decided some drama was necessary to get everyone's attention, so he picked up his pen, raised it high in the air, and dropped it onto the binder on his lap. A bomb going off in the room could not have been louder. This had the intended effect and Filip launched into inspiring a shared vision: "I used a hopeful and positive tone of voice. I was excited and called on our collective strength as a team to move forward and be successful. I hoped that my excitement and positive mood would prove infectious and revitalize the group. We all noticed an uplift of our mood and we could literally see a sparkle of hope returning to one another's eyes. The key was making the vision of our success a joint process because we all came to believe that we could do this."

Challenge the Process

Leaders are pioneers-people who seek out new opportunities and are willing to change the status quo. They innovate, experiment, and explore ways to improve the organization. They treat mistakes as learning experiences. Leaders also stay prepared to meet whatever challenges may confront them. They plan projects and break them down into achievable steps, creating opportunities for small wins.

The commitments of leaders to Challenge the Process involve

Searching for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve

Experimenting and taking risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes

Allison Avon told us that the idea of Challenging the Process took on real meaning for her when she was in charge of her school's annual Charity Fashion Show. The school typically raised funds to buy toys for the children at a local Head Start program. For various reasons the program administrators didn't want the school to buy the children toys, and "we couldn't convince them otherwise." Everyone was pretty discouraged and wanted to cancel the fashion show.

Allison wasn't ready to give up, so she asked everyone for their ideas and what alternatives they could imagine. As a result...