The Leadership Challenge: Kouzes And Posner
RAR #3-1
Orlando Mayers
The Leadership Challenge/ GSL 512
May 26, 2011
Dr. G. Shelton
Abstract
This paper will highlight number three (3) on Kouzes and Posner’s five fundamental practices of exemplary leaders and also discuss a leaders positive response to the ever-changing environment. Number three (3) on that list is to Challenge the Process.
Challenge the Process
In their book, “The Leadership Challenge,” James Kouzes and Barry Posner set forth the five fundamental practices of exemplary leaders. Number three (3) on that list is to Challenge the
Process. When they are at their best, successful leaders continually search for new opportunities to do what has never before been done before. They are not merely content …show more content…
to maintain the status quo. Peter Drucker said, “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving
problems.
All one can hope to get by solving problems is to restore normalcy.” Leaders may not change the world, but they passionately pursue making a significant difference. Leaders want to transform; they are not merely content to maintain. (Leadershipletters.com, 2011). Leaders plunge into new, sometimes dangerous, and always unpredictable territory. They take us to places we’ve never been before, and probably could never find on our own.
(Leadershipletters.com, 2011). If we think more about failing at what we’re doing than about doing it, we will not succeed. This brings me what I think of as the Wallenada Factor, (go to
YouTube) a concept described in Leaders. Shortly after the great aerialist Karl Wallenda fell to his death in 1978 while doing his most dangerous walk, his wife, also an aerialist, said, “All Karl thought about for months before was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that, a and it seemed to me that he put all his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope.”
(Bennis, 2009). Few if any Americans have ever gone through such a crisis on a tightrope but whatever your crisis may be it can be a lesson of despair or the best thing to ever happen to you. …show more content…
Bennis
(2009) mentions too many CEO’s to name that have rallied from a setback only to become more successful having learned a great deal from choas.
After reading this I can relate having gone through setbacks earlier in life, I can now look back with great pleasure after surviving the rough years. The other side of this is that I honestly didn’t notice the change until my late 30’s (8).
Early success in life may do more harm than good because you’re neither old enough nor mature enough to accept that life goes on after stumble. The older you are your mindset of a setback is that of it being a part of life, just keep living.
I 've never been one to take the obvious path. My very first job as a teenager was
cutting grass and painting the school campus during the summer. There’s always been a part of
me that resisted facing labor-intensive jobs, but even stronger was the part of me that resisted
doing it the ordinary way. I think there 's something in every leader that yearns to try things in
new ways, to test the status quo–to challenge the process. If you 're a leader, you 've probably had
similar experiences all your life. Leaders are constantly evaluating and critiquing the world around them. The rest of the world is quite the opposite. In fact, it 's human nature to
gravitate toward the familiar. And left to themselves, virtually every person and organization is in a subconscious pursuit of the status quo. Eventually they will find it. And they will work very, very hard to stay there.
I begin by discussing “challenge the process”, however; “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and unless you understand the nature of these dynamics, the very instincts that qualify you for greatness can also lead you to disqualify yourself and sabotage your opportunities. References
Bennis, W. (2009). On becoming a leader: The leadership classic. New York: Basic Books
Kouzes and Posner. (2007). The leadership challenge: (4th Ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Stanley, A. (2011). Challenge the process: Retrieved from http://www.ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-leadership/culture/12948-challenge-the-process
Leaders Challenge the Process. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.leadershipletters.com/1998/10/30/leaders-challenge-the-process-part-1/
Orlando Mayers
The Leadership Challenge/ GSL 512
May 26, 2011
Dr. G. Shelton
Abstract
This paper will highlight number three (3) on Kouzes and Posner’s five fundamental practices of exemplary leaders and also discuss a leaders positive response to the ever-changing environment. Number three (3) on that list is to Challenge the Process.
Challenge the Process
In their book, “The Leadership Challenge,” James Kouzes and Barry Posner set forth the five fundamental practices of exemplary leaders. Number three (3) on that list is to Challenge the
Process. When they are at their best, successful leaders continually search for new opportunities to do what has never before been done before. They are not merely content …show more content…
to maintain the status quo. Peter Drucker said, “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving
problems.
All one can hope to get by solving problems is to restore normalcy.” Leaders may not change the world, but they passionately pursue making a significant difference. Leaders want to transform; they are not merely content to maintain. (Leadershipletters.com, 2011). Leaders plunge into new, sometimes dangerous, and always unpredictable territory. They take us to places we’ve never been before, and probably could never find on our own.
(Leadershipletters.com, 2011). If we think more about failing at what we’re doing than about doing it, we will not succeed. This brings me what I think of as the Wallenada Factor, (go to
YouTube) a concept described in Leaders. Shortly after the great aerialist Karl Wallenda fell to his death in 1978 while doing his most dangerous walk, his wife, also an aerialist, said, “All Karl thought about for months before was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that, a and it seemed to me that he put all his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope.”
(Bennis, 2009). Few if any Americans have ever gone through such a crisis on a tightrope but whatever your crisis may be it can be a lesson of despair or the best thing to ever happen to you. …show more content…
Bennis
(2009) mentions too many CEO’s to name that have rallied from a setback only to become more successful having learned a great deal from choas.
After reading this I can relate having gone through setbacks earlier in life, I can now look back with great pleasure after surviving the rough years. The other side of this is that I honestly didn’t notice the change until my late 30’s (8).
Early success in life may do more harm than good because you’re neither old enough nor mature enough to accept that life goes on after stumble. The older you are your mindset of a setback is that of it being a part of life, just keep living.
I 've never been one to take the obvious path. My very first job as a teenager was
cutting grass and painting the school campus during the summer. There’s always been a part of
me that resisted facing labor-intensive jobs, but even stronger was the part of me that resisted
doing it the ordinary way. I think there 's something in every leader that yearns to try things in
new ways, to test the status quo–to challenge the process. If you 're a leader, you 've probably had
similar experiences all your life. Leaders are constantly evaluating and critiquing the world around them. The rest of the world is quite the opposite. In fact, it 's human nature to
gravitate toward the familiar. And left to themselves, virtually every person and organization is in a subconscious pursuit of the status quo. Eventually they will find it. And they will work very, very hard to stay there.
I begin by discussing “challenge the process”, however; “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and unless you understand the nature of these dynamics, the very instincts that qualify you for greatness can also lead you to disqualify yourself and sabotage your opportunities. References
Bennis, W. (2009). On becoming a leader: The leadership classic. New York: Basic Books
Kouzes and Posner. (2007). The leadership challenge: (4th Ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Stanley, A. (2011). Challenge the process: Retrieved from http://www.ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-leadership/culture/12948-challenge-the-process
Leaders Challenge the Process. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.leadershipletters.com/1998/10/30/leaders-challenge-the-process-part-1/