Personal Best Leadership Experiences: Challenge is the Workshop of Excellence

Kouzes and Posner (2002) reported that over half of the personal best leadership experiences were initiated by someone besides the leader. The leader’s immediate manager was the most common source of projects and it is logical to assume that individuals in the organizations or stakeholder constituencies initiated projects as well. Oftentimes, these leadership projects were initiatives for change and altered the sense of business as usual in the organization. The survey question used by Kouzes and Posner (2002) that asked who initiated the project was a great instinct, as one would naturally assume that primarily the leaders engage in entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship. The implication is that leaders must not only work with those reporting to them and their peers, but they must also follow the leadership of those to whom they report. Another important meaning of this finding is that leaders do not necessarily start projects but they lead them toward a logical and substantive finish–in effect, leadership is clearly separate from entrepreneurship.

Challenge is the Workshop of Excellence

Kouzes and Posner (2002) noted three important lessons about leader’s acting as agents of change in their personal best leadership experiences:

• Challenges seek leaders just as leaders seek challenges – the process goes both ways.
• Challenge is the workshop of excellence. The door to doing one’s best is opened by opportunities to challenge the status quo and introduce change.
• New opportunities can bring forth unknown skills and abilities. Ordinary men and women can do the extraordinary with the right opportunities and support.

These are interesting findings because they are somewhat counter-intuitive. The stereotype is that leaders seek challenges much more often than challenges tend to identify them–this is not the case. As one of my mentors once put it, “Work tends to flow to those who can do it.” An orderly controlled environment is less likely to be the best environment for challenges to the status quo to thrive. Leaders can just be regular people who have been given opportunities and capabilities to succeed. Each of these findings run somewhat counter to the prevailing wisdom of how leadership and innovation interact.

Reference

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