Preface: Making Extraordinary Things Happen with Others
The Student Leadership Challenge is about how young leaders—people just like you—mobilize others to make extraordinary things happen anywhere, from a classroom, residence hall, Greek chapter, club, community service project, and student government, to the entire campus, neighboring community, and even the state and nation. It's about the practices student leaders use every day to get people moving toward a better future. They use these practices to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards. Leadership is what turns challenging opportunities into remarkable successes.
This third edition of The Student Leadership Challenge comes out ten years after the publication of the first. Since then, we have continued to research, consult, teach, and learn about what young leaders do and how anyone, regardless of age, can become a better leader. We're honored by the reception we've received in the education marketplace and by hearing that students, educators, and practitioners continue to find that The Student Leadership Challenge is conceptually and practically useful.
The foundation for The Student Leadership Challenge has stood the test of time. We continue to ask the same question that started our inquiry into exemplary leadership: What did you do when you were at your personal best as a leader?
One of the most common yet profound realizations from the answers to this question is that leadership is an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to anyone, no matter their age or position. As one student explained: “Growing up, I assumed leaders had certain traits and qualities that I didn't seem to have. I thought there were ‘natural' leaders who were born to lead. I thought leadership was the description of what these people did. When you asked me to describe my personal-best leadership experience, I found to my surprise that I had those leadership abilities myself.” Another student said that she learned “that anybody can be a leader. I had never considered myself a leader, but when I was needed to step up and deal with a difficult situation, I was able to find the leader within me and do so.”
We've talked to thousands of young men and women, representing many educational institutions and youth organizations around the world. Their stories, and the behaviors and actions they've described, combined with examples from thousands of other leaders, validate The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership framework. When students do their best as a leader, they Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. These are the practices that you can use to become a more effective leader and that we describe in detail in this book.
The Student Leadership Challenge is evidence based. We derived The Five Practices from research, and we illustrate them with examples from actual student leaders doing real things. In this third edition, we provide new stories, cases, examples, and illustrations of exactly what young people like you do when they are at their leadership best. The concepts are presented in a way that allows you to focus on applying what works. Also, with this latest edition, you have the opportunity to more closely link how you see yourself behaving as a leader, through completing the Student Leadership Practices Inventory, and reflecting on practical ideas for how you can take action. Our intention is to help you discover new ways to be the best leader you can be.
The more we research and write about leadership, the more confident we become that leadership is within the grasp of everyone and that opportunities for leadership are everywhere. No matter what your experience is as a leader, we know that you have the capacity to lead if you choose to. Leadership is not about a position or title, as many young people presume. It is about the choices you make throughout your life—with the goal of making the situations and places you find better because you were there. Great leadership is not about making the leader look good but about how individuals use leadership in service to others to make the people and groups around them better.
In reading this book, you will get a deep understanding of The Five Practices and what they look like in action. By using The Five Practices in your life, you will continue to grow, develop yourself as an exemplary leader, and make a positive difference. You are in a stage of life where the opportunities to make a difference are all around you: in your classes, youth groups, clubs, organizations, athletics, schools, and community. As you take advantage of these opportunities to learn and lead, others will begin to take note and look to you to help them figure out how they can develop their own leadership skills.
You don't just owe it to yourself to become the best leader you can be. You have a responsibility to others as well. You may not yet know it, but people all around you need you to do your best and be your best.
A Guide for Young Leaders
How do you get other people to want to follow you? How do you get other people, by free will and free choice, to move forward together in a common purpose? How do you get people energized to work hard together to get something done that everyone can feel proud of? These are the important questions we address in The Student Leadership Challenge. Think of this book as a guide to take along on your leadership journey. Think of it as a manual you can consult when you want advice and guidance on how to get extraordinary things done with others. Think of it as a place to go when you're not sure what to do as a leader.
In the Introduction we describe our leadership framework by sharing a personal-best leadership experience case study about how one leader acted on her values and pursued a path of commitment and action to make a difference in gender equality education. We provide an overview of The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, summarizing the findings about what student leaders do when they are at their best, and show how these actions make a difference. A major benefit of accepting and adopting this framework of leadership is that it isn't difficult to understand, and it doesn't cost any money or require anybody else's permission. It just requires a commitment from you and ongoing practice to make these leadership behaviors habits in your life.
The ten chapters that follow describe the Ten Commitments of Leadership—the essential behaviors—that leaders use to get extraordinary things done. Here we explain the fundamental principles that support each of The Five Practices and offer interactive worksheets for you to reflect on the state of your skills and behaviors in each leadership practice and identify abilities that you can strengthen and improve. Each of these chapters ends with an invitation to reflect on what you learned from reading it and to decide how you will put your learning into action.
In the final chapter, we offer a call to action to accept personal responsibility for being a role model for exemplary leadership and making these leadership practices part of your daily routines, in all aspects of your life. The first place to look for leadership is within you. Accepting the leadership challenge requires practice, reflection, humility, and making the most of every opportunity to make a difference. We'll assert that leadership is not an affair of the head. Leadership is an affair of the heart. In this Afterword you'll see what we mean by this claim and how it applies to you.
We recommend that you first read Chapter 1, but after that there is no prescribed order to proceeding through the rest of this book. Go wherever your interests are. We wrote The Student Leadership Challenge to support you in your leadership development. Just remember that each practice is essential. Although you might bounce around in the book, you can't skip understanding and practicing any of these fundamentals of leadership.
This book will contribute to the success you have working with others, to the creation of new ideas and enterprises, to the renewal of healthy schools and prosperous communities, and to greater respect and understanding in the world. We also fervently hope that it enriches your life.
Meeting the leadership challenge is a personal—and daily—challenge for everyone. We know that if you have the will and the way to lead, you can. You must supply the will. We'll do our best to keep supplying the way.
James Kouzes
Orinda, California
Barry Posner
Berkeley, California