Читать книгу Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership - James M. Kouzes, Beth High, Джеймс Кузес - Страница 12

Exemplary leadership makes a significant difference in people's levels of well-being, commitment, and motivation, their work performance, and the success of their organizations. That's the definitive conclusion from analyzing data from over three million respondents around the world using the Leadership Practices Inventory to assess how often people engage in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.¹⁰ Those leaders who most frequently use The Five Practices are considerably more effective across a variety of outcomes than their counterparts who use them less often.

Looking at the data just for those people who indicate they are “individual contributors” (as opposed to executives, middle managers, or supervisors) reveals the same pattern as these overall findings. In each of the subsequent chapters we present empirical evidence from their peers that further substantiates these results.^* For example, there is a very strong correlation (r = .67) between the likelihood of “being recommended to colleagues as a good leader” by one's peers and the frequency to which they observe the individual engaging in The Five Practices. As shown in Figure 1, the more frequently that one's colleagues and co-workers observe that person engaging in The Five Practices, the more strongly they agree that that individual is a good leader. This certainly makes sense. You can't be regarded as a leader if you don't behave as a leader.

So you don't have to be in a leadership position or have direct reports in order to make a difference to your colleagues and co-workers or to be seen as most effective by your manager. The bottom line empirically is that the more you utilize The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, the more likely it is that you'll have a positive influence on other people and the organization. That's what all our data and the scores of research conducted by independent scholars¹¹ add up to: If you want to have a significant impact on the people around you and the organizations you are involved with, you'd be wise to invest in learning the behaviors that enable you to become the very best leader you can.

While The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership don't completely explain why leaders and their organizations are successful—which is actually good news because you should be very skeptical of anyone who promises perfection or offers a money-back guarantee—it is clear that engaging in them makes quite a difference no matter who you are, what you do, or where you are located. How you behave as a leader matters, and it matters a lot. You are the leader who makes the most difference in the lives of those you lead. And you are the one who has to determine how to match these practices and their associated behaviors to the settings and circumstances that you face. That's how you combine the art of leadership with mastery of the science of leadership.

Figure 1 Likelihood of Being Recommended as a Good Leader by Peers Increases with Greater Frequency of Leadership Practices

In the next five chapters are detailed descriptions of what people do to Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. You will find stories and examples of people just like you who demonstrate each of these leadership practices, and we provide ideas, tools, and techniques that you can use on your leadership development journey.

As you read each of the chapters, keep in mind the key messages from this overview of our research on what people are doing when they are leading:

 Leadership is not a position or hierarchical place or genetic trait

 Leadership is a relationship

 Leadership role models are local

 Leadership is everyone's business

 Credibility is the foundation of leadership

 Leadership is an understandable, observable, and learnable set of behaviors and actions

 You are already leading … and you can exercise leadership more frequently

 Leadership makes a difference

 You make a difference

In the next chapter we explain how you begin to earn the trust of the people around you. We show how you Model the Way by clarifying values and setting an example for others.