What do Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, César Chávez, the Dalai Lama, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have in common? They all have, or had, strong beliefs about matters of principle and an unwavering commitment to a clear set of values. They all are, or were, passionate about their causes. Another thing they have in common is that while each of these people may have quoted someone else from time to time, they are all people who are more often quoted themselves.
Finding your voice and serving as a role model for your constituents is critical to becoming an authentic leader. If you can’t find your voice, you’ll end up with a vocabulary that belongs to someone else, mouthing words that were written by some speechwriter, or mimicking the language of some other leader who’s nothing like you. And people most admire those who best articulate the principles they believe in. You can begin to achieve these aims by exploring the first of the five practices of exemplary leadership: “Model the Way.” This is the second in a series of courses adopted from the highly respected book, The Leadership Challenge, written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.
At the conclusion of this course you will be able to:
Discuss the first of the five practices of exemplary leadership, “Model the Way”
Define your voice by clarifying your values and expressing yourself
Name your own beliefs by studying the leaders that you most respect
Explain how stories, analogies and metaphors teach virtues
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT: James Kouzes and Barry Posner
Jim Kouzes is chairman emeritus of the Tom Peters Company, a professional services firm which specializes in leadership development. He's also an executive fellow in the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University.
Barry Posner is Dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, located in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Jim and Barry co-authored The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations, which is now in its third edition (2002) with over one million copies in print. The Leadership Challenge, available in eleven languages, has been a selection of the Macmillan Executive Book Club and the Fortune Book Club. It's the winner of the 1989 James A. Hamilton Hospital Administrators' Book, the 1995-96 Critics' Choice Award, and was a BusinessWeek bestseller in 2001. Jim and Barry have also co-authored Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, which was chosen by Industry Week as one of the ten best management books of 1993. Encouraging the Heart and The Leadership Challenge Planner were released in 1999. Based on solid research involving over 70,000 surveys, 1,000 written case studies, and 100 in-depth interviews, these books describe the leadership principles and practices that generate high performance in individuals and organizations.
1.5 hrs. Online Course