Pocketblog has gone back to basics. This is part of an extended management course.
The Management Pocketblog is absolutely bristling with articles about leadership and leadership models. There is a roundup of some of the best at the end of this one and we will make use of them in the exercises within this blog. So, for the Pocket Correspondence course, I want to look at a different model: sometimes called ‘The Leadership Challenge’ after the book that introduced it, and more properly known as ‘The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership’.
The authors, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, researched thousands of personal case studies to extract five core behaviours which they believe represent leadership at its best. These five practices therefore represent a ‘behavioural model’ of leadership, rather than a style or traits based model. The behaviours fulfil five essential roles of a leader.
Along with the model, they have developed a wealth of evaluation and developmental tools that form one of the most coherent packages available to managers who want to develop as leaders.
The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
I don’t want to say too much about this excellent model directly, because it would be wrong to infringe upon the authors’ copyright. Instead, I want to use this module for self study.
Exercise 1: Learn about The Leadership Challenge
If you aspire to lead, then this is essential reading and the authors have written a number of books and proprietary resources that are available from your favourite booksellers. But they also make a a wealth of valuable material available for you to look at on their website, at: http://www.leadershipchallenge.com.
Exercise 2: Compare and Contrast
Another well-known and valuable role-based model of leadership is John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership. Take a look at it in the earlier blog post: Team Leadership. What features do they share, and what does each offer to complement the other?
Take a look too, at the four common abilities of a leader in Manager to Leader: Warren Bennis (Part 2). How does this model fit with your emerging understanding?
Exercise 3: Traits and Styles
Thinking about styles of leadership, take a look at the earlier blog in The Pocket Correspondence Course, Situational Leadership. And, whilst there are few formal models about the traits of leaders, the Pocketblog Aubrey and Maturin, Arthur and Merlin highlights the different traits of fictional pairings, both of whom show different styles of leadership: Aubrey and Maturin, Arthur and Merlin, Kirk and Spock, and Holmes and Watson.
- The Leadership Pocketbook
- The Management Models Pocketbook
Specifically covers the Leadership Continuum and Action Centred Leadership
The best Pocketblogs about Leadership
- Situational Leadership
- The Science of Leadership: Warren Bennis (Part 1)
- Manager to Leader: Warren Bennis (Part 2)
- The Apprentice and Five Levels of Leadership
(Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’) - Team Leadership
(John Adair’s ‘Action Centred Leadership’) - Aubrey and Maturin, Arthur and Merlin