Best of Blogs: LeaderTalk by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

The Leadership Challenge blog - also called LeaderTalk - highlights themes from Jim Kouzes' and Barry Posner's best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge. Jim and Barry have collaborated on more than a dozen other books and are preeminent researchers, award-winning writers and sought after teachers.

Their philosophy (similar to ours) is that "leadership is everyone's business." They say more than ever there is a need for people from every walk of life to seize opportunities that lead to greatness; for leaders to inspire people to dream, participate and persevere. Jim and Barry wrote the The Leadership Challenge, their other books and their blog to inspire people to take the initiative and make a difference.

Here's a great post from Jim about leading during times of adversity.

Adversity Introduces Us to Ourselves
by Jim Kouzes (May 13, 2008)

The economy is in a foul mood, and it's not being nice to anyone. You can be an eighty-year old banking icon or high-tech startup with ink still wet on the incorporation papers, and this market is going to mess with you. In my last three phone calls with clients, I have heard stories about layoffs of hundreds of middle managers, declining sales in retail stores, and no upward mobility in the firm "for the first time in our history." And on all these calls I have been asked if I might share some thoughts about what leaders can do to keep people engaged and inspired in times like these.

The calls bring to mind a comment made by John McDonnell, former CEO of McDonnell Douglas, when that company was going through its struggles before eventually merging with Boeing. "Adversity introduces you to yourself," he said, reflecting upon what that struggle had brought for him. And another thought from Randy Melville whom we interviewed when he was with Pepsi. Quoting his Princeton University basketball coach, Pete Carril, Randy said, "Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it." Challenges, difficulties, setbacks, adversities…they are all familiar sights on the leadership landscape. And one of the things that they cause us to do is to come face-to-face with ourselves. They are a rather harsh way of reminding us of what's important, what we value, and where we want to go.

Leaders are no strangers to challenges. In fact, exemplary leaders thrive on them. Here are a few tips on what you can do as a leader to enable others to learn to thrive as well.

Read the rest of the post here.

Vote for LeaderTalk or one of or other nominees here.

Labels: Best leadership blogs, leadership blog

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