I received more from this book then I could have hoped for. Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner wrote the original version of this book in 1987 but that shouldn't scare you because they are on their 5th edition of this book in which they add new case studies, more interviews with other leaders, and other updates.
Every time I read a book like this I check the credibility of the authors and if you do your own research you'd know that these two are more then credible to write a book on leadership. Whenever I read a book of this kind I check to see if it's research based and not based purely on personal opinion. The book cites study, after study. Like frosting on the cake all of the ideas that they present from the studies and questionnaires are supported by stories of leaders around the globe.
I immediately started using the material presented in this book in my workplace and definitely noticed a difference!

Kouzes, James, and Barry Posner (1987, 1995, 2002, 2007, 2012), The Leadership Challenge, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. A very readable, well-researched, and practical book about leadership, now in its fourth edition. It includes interesting insights about what followers expect of their leaders, and rich descriptions of how to accomplish the five leadership challenges in contemporary organizations: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart. Head and shoulders above dozens of books I’ve read on leadership since 1972, including a raft of recent ones. The authors run a popular seminar based on the book. They also keep current by publishing new editions, the most recent in 2012. It is really interesting to see what qualities of leaders their followers have most admired over the past 25 years...

I rarely read non-fiction but thought I'd give this a go. This is an excellent book and so much of what they wrote makes sense. Creating relationships takes a lot of hard work whether it's at work, family or friends and we must strive to put in that work the best we can. Being a leader means that you can't make it about yourself. It must be about lifting others.

Assigned reading for a business school class. Thought it was fine, but lots of themes I’ve heard before

أحد أروع كتب القيادة التي قرأتها وخاصة للقادة ذوي الرؤية..
يمكنك من نمذجة خطواتك واكتشاف أخطائك وتطوير ذاتك وطرق التعامل مع فريقك

Our leadership team read this book together, had small group accountability partners to develop interpersonal relationships, and then whole-team conversations about questions developed from the book.

In general, this book’s content was standard - - nothing new or extraordinary, but traditionally sound leadership principles. Several of my colleagues pointed out that each chapter was summarized in the “Take Action” chapter conclusions...a sort of cliff notes for the book. If you don’t want to invest in reading the entire book, you can easily learn the principles from these sections.

This framework for understanding leadership is by far the simplest, fully comprehensive approach I have come across.

While most leadership tactics and thought schools have value, even the most valuable is not likely to allow for remembering all 21 or more leadership traits. True, each of these 5 leadership behavior categories is broken down into two other and then six other behavior types in the LPI survey, but the understanding surrounding the 5 core value behaviors remains constant.

The book is supported by nearly 40 years of research, including more than 2.5 million LPI respondents. Research is cited constantly in terms that are readily applicable to applicable behaviors, though I admit the sheer quantity of numbers became confusing to me. I feel that this book is very credible in its sources and in its cross-cultural, cross-organizational, and cross-generational validity.

Despite all of this, I do not believe that this (or any) book on leadership is of much value alone. The topics considered for leadership focus on changing our behaviors. If not started, applied, modified, continued, re-directed, and observed by someone who can provide experienced feedback, behaviors are simply nice ideas. Leadership must be lived or it cannot exist. Some sort of mentoring system, small group training, or even an accountability partner is required to evolve the head knowledge provided here into a meaningful and substantial leadership lifestyle. Leaders are doers. After completing this book as part of my own leadership training experience, I am upgrading this statement to: Leaders are Livers. Read on!

For the most part I enjoyed The Leadership Challenge. The five practices of exemplary leadership are a good basis to teach good leadership. Nothing is earth shattering here but reading this book will make you more conscious of how others perceive your actions and provide strategies for better leadership practice.
The later chapters are a little repetitive to the point where I would forget which chapter I was on. There are many anecdotes but not all really hit home. I think this book could be 20 pages shorter.
Overall it is a good read for those interested in developing better leadership skills.

This one took a long time for me to read. It was part of a small group (5 of us) project where I work.
At first, I was having a hard time with the textbook feel of the writing but after chapter 3 I started to click it into gear a bit.
I’ve read a bunch of leadership books and this one was definitely a good one to read with a group for me to hash out the practices and how to put them into action. Without our discussion group, I don’t know if this would have had as big of an impact on me.

Our group is about to present the teachings of this book to all of our directors and managers (a group of about 50) as a 4 hour leadership workshop - I hope we are able to inspire others to grow in their leadership and elevate our organization!

A strong entry full of excellent advice. I deeply agree with the approach of using stories as evidence of your company values being lived. That’s the technique I stumbled into as a maker and shaper of corporate cultures, and it works.

A lot the points made are similar and super long-winded. I feel like I could have learned the same in 30 pages.

I had to read this for work, which must qualify as some kind of cruel and unusual punishment. Anyway:

The Leadership Challenge – A review in clichés and idioms.

The Leadership Challenge describes itself as an evidence-based primer on the near-universal qualities of excellent leaders. Its authors state that they have conducted years of research on leadership, and have distilled the data into what they have identified as the five practices of successful leaders.

Each of the five practices is then separated into its own section, in which the authors completely fail to clearly define it. Sleeping on this book and attempting to absorb it by osmosis might be a more effective way of digesting its contents.

The following is my interpretation of what the five practices of successful leaders are.

1.tModel the behavior that you would like to elicit from your team. Clearly explaining what your values are is important, but talk is cheap. Walk the walk. Actions speak louder than words. Effective leaders expect more out of themselves than they do out of anyone else. Duh.

The authors suggest that the method by which you model the behavior that you would like to see is to first clarify internally what your own strongly held values and principles are, then to figure out how to express those values and principles in your own words, and then to identify and affirm the values you share across the organization. Finally, an aspiring leader must commit to executing on those values personally, in order to model the way for the team. Your time and attention should be spent on the things that you expect your team to find important.

2.tInspire a shared vision in your team with enthusiastic commitment to accomplishing goals. This category is pretty fuzzy, but it seems to suggest that an effective leader first sincerely believes in the pursuit of team goals and achievements, and second, utilizes his or her own enthusiasm to recruit team members into sharing that commitment. This category also involves ensuring that your team understands where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. “Vision” in this sense can be equated with “purpose.”

3.t“Challenge the Process.” Again, this is a very fuzzy concept. I interpret it as saying that effective leaders ignore, cut through, and/or find some way to bypass red tape in order to achieve shared goals. As an umbrella concept, this includes fearlessly utilizing new processes, systems, or products, not being hidebound, and thinking outside of the box. Build a better mousetrap, light a candle rather than curse the darkness, etc.

4.tEnable others to act. Effective leaders make sure that their team is able to perform to the best of their abilities, and delegate authority and discretion along with tasks. Effective leaders think of themselves as part of their team, rather than the commander of their team, and solicit team opinions and input. This includes giving serious consideration to team opinions and input, not just soliciting input for the sake of saying that you did it.

5.tEncourage and appreciate team contributions and efforts. Please and thank you aren’t just for charm school. Who knew.


In addition to looking at the five practices of successful leaders, the authors also examine what “constituents” look for, expect from, and admire in their leaders. Personally, a snappy uniform always does it for me. But for others, in order to inspire people to willingly follow them, a leader must be (in order of importance): (1) honest, (2) forward-looking, (3) inspiring, and (4) competent. According to the book, these qualities can be further defined by one core concept, which is credibility.

1.tIn all of the research done by the authors, they have consistently found that “honesty” is the most important category. The reason for this is that the category of “honesty” has so many corollary qualities, such as ethics, trustworthiness, and integrity. The honesty of a leader also weighs heavily on a team’s view of its members. That is, following a leader perceived to be dishonest or untrustworthy tends to make a team lose respect not only for its leader but for the team members. Following a leader who is perceived to be trustworthy and honest makes the team feel better about themselves and about their job.

2.tThe “forward-looking” category mostly relates to a leader’s “sense of direction and concern for the future of the organization.” My sense of this category is that the more that a team feels as though their leader is actually part of the active guiding force in the organization, the better they feel about following that leader’s directions.

3.tThe “inspiring” category is related to a team’s sense of their leader’s commitment to and enthusiasm for team activities and goals. Teams are more likely to want to follow a leader who is sincerely enthusiastic about the work at hand, and who can positively convey a sense of the meaning and importance of that work to their team.

4.t“Competence” is pretty self-explanatory, but generally, it’s difficult for a team to commit to following a leader who isn’t perceived to have the knowledge, experience or skills necessary to set and achieve team goals.

Honestly, I’m pretty sure that the entire book can be distilled down to two concepts. The first is that if you’re in a leadership position, your own behavior has to be exemplary. Your team will only work as hard as they see you working. The second is that you have to know what your team is doing, and you have to support them in doing it. No one wants to work for a leader who they feel is working against them or who simply doesn’t care about what they’re doing. I don’t know why anyone needs a $25.00 book to explain this stuff. Being a human person who recognizes that others are also human persons should be sufficient.

Finally, the book addresses the question of whether any of this really matters. Unsurprisingly, the answer is yes. In terms of employee engagement, productivity, efficiency, and retention of top talent, excellent leadership makes an enormous impact. So, get on it folks.