Summary: The Truth About Leadership

Review and Analysis of Kouzes and Posner's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782511022313
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner's book: `The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know`.

This complete summary of the ideas from James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner's book `The Truth About Leadership` shows that while the context of leadership changes constantly, the content of what makes a good leader hasn’t changed and likely never will. In their book, the authors explain that the emerging leaders of the twenty-first century and beyond will still be able to count on ten essential and time-tested truths. These truths teach every leader what they need to know, the questions they must be prepared to answer, and the issues that will likely require their attention. This summary explains each of these truths in detail and demonstrates how anyone can improve their leadership skills.

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To learn more, read `The Truth About Leadership` and discover the key to becoming a better manager.

Summary of The Truth About Leadership (James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner)

1. As a leader, you’ll got to believe you can make a difference

Before you can be a good leader, you’ve got to accept you can have a positive impact on the people around you. You have to believe in yourself and that you can make a difference in people’s lives.

“Everything you will ever do as a leader is based on one audacious assumption. It’s the assumption that you matter. Before you can lead others, you have to lead yourself and believe that you can have a positive impact on others. You have to believe that your words can inspire and your actions can move others. You have to believe that what you do counts for something. If you don’t, you won’t even try. Leadership begins with you. The truth is that you make a difference.”

– James Kouzes and Barry Posner

Conventional wisdom suggests leadership is found only at the very top of an organization, and that it is reserved for those with charisma and authority alone. This is far from the truth. The reality is leadership is always broadly distributed. It is accessible to anyone who has the passion and purpose to bring about helpful and productive change.

Leadership does not come automatically with a title. It doesn’t require power, absolute authority, celebrity, wealth or even charisma. Leadership is always local – you will find leadership role models in the people you report to. Similarly, the people who report to you look to you rather than the CEO for leadership.

Rather than trickling down from the top, leadership happens whenever you help the people around you and who work directly with you to be more productive. You have more impact on your direct report’s day-to-day performance than the CEO of your company ever has.

What do you need to do to make a difference as a leader?

1. Model the way and demonstrate how to add value for your own organization.
2. Inspire a shared vision and get everyone on the same page when it comes to getting things done.
3. Challenge inefficient processes and find practical ways to improve them.
4. Empower others to act using their best judgement.
5. Encourage the heart.

Even if you’re not currently in a management position, you can take personal responsibility to do something about a serious problem and start applying sound leadership practices. Leaders take actions others choose to follow and thus make a difference. They heed the call to step forward and thereby open themselves to the chance of making a difference in the world. This is what you need to do to lead.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

– Marianne Williamson, author

2. Credibility is the bedrock foundation of all great leadership

If people don’t believe in you and in what you’re trying to achieve, they won’t willingly follow you. To be a great leader who people follow enthusiastically, you’ve got to earn that commitment by being credible.

“The truth is that credibility is the foundation of leadership. This is the inescapable conclusion we’ve come to after thirty years of asking people around the world what they look for and admire in a leader, someone whose direction they would willingly follow. The key word in the preceding sentence is ‘willingly.’ It’s one thing to follow someone because you think you have to ‘or else,’ and it’s another when you follow a leader because you want to. What does it take to be the kind of person, the kind of leader, others want to follow, doing so enthusiastically and voluntarily?”

– James Kouzes and Barry Posner

Leadership should always be viewed as a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. You need both sides of this relationship to be in place and working before genuine leadership will occur. Leadership strategies, tactics and practices are merely window dressing. To be effective as a leader, you need the credibility which comes from doing what you say you will do.

In a thirty-year survey, hundreds of thousands of people were asked what character or personality traits they looked for and admired in someone they would be willing to follow. There were four qualities which received jus...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of The Truth About Leadership (James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright