Extra Credit - The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes & Posner, Part 1

     Chapter one of The Leadership Challenge served as a quick summary of the first main chapters of The Student Leadership Challenge which we read in class. In one chapter, it briefly described the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. What I realized in reading them all together is that they all work together in such a way that a leader could not use one practice without also using the other four. They all work together in order to build the ultimate ideal of community. It's an idea present and as an outcome of each practice.

     In Model The Way, Kouzes claims, "Leaders must forge agreement around common principles and common ideals," and some important elements are, "the power of spending time with someone, of working side by side with colleagues, of telling stories that made values come alive, of being highly visible during times of uncertainty, and of asking questions to get people to think about values and priorities." All of these elements build a sense of community. By trusting and enjoying the people and leaders that surround you, a common culture, goal, and values can be developed - all of which are necessary in a community setting.

     In Inspire a Shared Vision, Kouzes says, "Their own enthusiasm was catching; it spread from leader to constituents. Their belief in and enthusiasm for the vision were the sparks that ignited the flame of inspiration." The whole idea of inspiring a shared vision is one of the most important tools in building a community: a team must share a goal and the values. A leader is the tool that brings all the members together and communicates and delegates those goals and values. 

     In Challenge the Process, the most important sentence in the entire passage is, "You can't exhort people to take risks if they don't also feel safe." In the paper I wrote, early in the semester, on the necessary values in leadership, I explained that safety is a necessary component and it helps to build community. Kouzes claims that without a sense of safety, your supporters won't listen and follow with what you ask. 

     Enabling Others to Act requires inclusion. "Inclusion...ensures that everyone feels and thinks that they are owners and leaders....when people are trusted and have more discretion, more authority, and more information, they're much more likely to use their energies to produce extraordinary results." It must be becoming quite obvious where all of this is going: every single aspect and practice builds and is a requirement of community. And community is a requirement and a practice of leadership. "Leaders foster collaboration and trust," might as well be saying 'Leaders foster community.'
     In the final practice, Encouraging the Heart, the authors say, "Leaders also know that celebrations and rituals, when done with authenticity and from the heart, build a strong sense of collective identity and community spirit that can carry a group through extraordinary times." The emphasis, here, is put on the team and the group - synonymous with community. And only with community knowledge can a leader be authentic and aware of his/her individuals. 

     I spoke in my last blog post (Combs) of the fact that I seem to have had in me a lot of the ideas we've learned and developed over this semester. This reading, as well as many of the others, have helped to realize that these ideas I had - community, in this case - are actual, conscious elements of leadership and that I must foster them and build upon them.