Conditions That Foster Leadership

Many words could be used to describe conditions that foster leadership abilities. Each of the words listed in the table below were used when respondents provided words to describe their personal best leadership experiences (Kouzes and Posner, 2002). These experiences led to leadership reactions in two primary ways: (1) To be agents of change, not managers but those who brought about process innovations and new ideas, methods and solutions into use; (2) To lead through work that was assigned to them, and not necessarily through entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial efforts. Here is how respondents in the Kouzes and Posner (2002) studies described the conditions that foster leadership growth:

Challenging Commitment Daunting Dedication Demanding Determination Developmental Discovering Dynamic Empowering Energizing

Exciting Fun Important Inspirational Inspiring Intensity Motivating Positive Proud Rewarding

Spiritual Stimulating Strengthening Stressful Thrilling Tough Work Unique Unusual Uplifting Whole-hearted

Responding to the above conditions that develop leadership resulted in those being tested becoming agents of change who effected substantive improvements to their respective organizations–new or changed processes resulted in innovative, tangible solutions. The innovation that resulted from the efforts of these agents of change was not necessarily caused by their own initiative, but the one whom the leader reported to directly typically initiated the conditions that fostered the leadership transformation. The conditions that started and guided the unfolding of the leadership challenge are surprisingly humble–just real people trying to make a difference in the organization.

Reference

Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.