James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner have been in the leadership research game for a long time. Their first survey was released in 1982—a full thirty-five years prior to this sixth edition of The Leadership Challenge. They began with a desire to learn what makes leaders credible. Why do we wish to follow some leaders and not others?

With over 400,000 annual (!) responses to their Leadership Practices Inventory to draw on, Kouzes and Posner have sifted the data and come up with the five practices of credible leaders. Good leaders do the following:

1. Model the way
2. Inspire a shared vision
3. Challenge the process
4. Enable others to act
5. Encourage the heart

The Leadership Challenge explains what each of these practices look like on the ground, liberally illustrated with examples from the business and non-profit world. The authors also parse the data more finely, showing which practices are the most highly valued in various global contexts. It turns out that the fundamental qualities of a credible leader are surprisingly ubiquitous.

I approached this book as a pastor and educator. While the insights are not specific to the religious world, examples from that world readily rose to mind. This would be a helpful book to walk a church leadership team through, taking time to contextualize and theologically reflect on the five practices.

Kouzes, James M. And Barry Z. Posner. The Leadership Challenge. 6th ed. John Wiley and Sons, 2017.