Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are co-authors of the award-winning, best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge. Since its first edition in 1987, The Leadership Challenge has sold nearly two million copies worldwide and is available in more than twenty-two languages. It has won numerous awards, including the Critics' Choice Award from the nation's book review editors and the James A. Hamilton Hospital Administrators' Book-of-the-Year Award, and was selected as one of the top ten books on leadership in The Top 100 Business Books of All Time.
Jim and Barry have co-authored more than a dozen other award-winning leadership books, including A Leader's Legacy; Credibility: How Leaders Gain It and Lose It, Why People Demand It; Encouraging the Heart; The Student Leadership Challenge; and The Academic Administrator's Guide to Exemplary Leadership. They also developed the highly acclaimed Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), a 360-degree questionnaire for assessing leadership behavior, which is one of the most widely used leadership assessment instruments in the world, along with The Student LPI. More than four hundred doctoral dissertations and academic research projects have been based on their Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® model.
Among the honors and awards that Jim and Barry have received are the American Society for Training and Development's (ASTD) highest award for their Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance, and the Management/Leadership Educators of the Year award from the International Management Council. They were named among the Top 50 Leadership Coaches in the nation (according to Coaching for Leadership).
Jim and Barry are frequent speakers, and each has conducted leadership development programs for hundreds of organizations, including Apple, Applied Materials, ARCO, AT&T, Australia Post, Bank of America, Bose, Charles Schwab, Cisco Systems, Community Leadership Association, Conference Board of Canada, Consumers Energy, Dell Computer, Deloitte Touche, Dorothy Wylie Nursing Leadership Institute, Egon Zehnder International, Federal Express, Gymboree, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Jobs DR-Singapore, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans and Hospitals, L. L. Bean, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Merck, Motorola, NetApp, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Petronas, Roche Bioscience, Siemens, Standard Aero, 3M, Toyota, the U.S. Postal Service, United Way, USAA, Verizon, VISA, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, and The Walt Disney Company.
Jim Kouzes is the Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, at Santa Clara University, and lectures on leadership around the world to corporations, governments, and non-profits. He is a highly regarded leadership scholar, an experienced executive, and The Wall Street Journal cited him as one of the twelve best executive educators in the United States. In 2010, Jim received the Thought Leadership Award from the Instructional Systems Association, the most prestigious award given by the trade association of training and development industry providers. In 2006 Jim was presented with the Golden Gavel, the highest honor awarded by Toastmasters International. Jim served as president, CEO, and chairman of the Tom Peters Company from 1988 through 1999, and prior to that led the Executive Development Center at Santa Clara University (1981–1987). Jim founded the Joint Center for Human Services Development at San Jose State University (1972–1980) and was on the staff of the School of Social Work, University of Texas. His career in training and development began in 1969 when he conducted seminars for Community Action Agency staff and volunteers in the war on poverty. Following graduation from Michigan State University (B.A. degree with honors in political science), he served as a Peace Corps volunteer (1967–1969). Jim can be reached at [email protected].
Barry Posner is professor of leadership at Santa Clara University, where he has received numerous teaching and innovation awards and served as dean of the Leavey School of Business for twelve years (1996–2009). An internationally renowned scholar and educator, Barry is author or co-author of more than one hundred research and practitioner-focused articles. He currently serves on the editorial review boards for Leadership and Organizational Development, Leadership Review, and The International Journal of Servant-Leadership. In 2011 he received the Journal of Management Inquiry Outstanding Scholar Award, which is given in recognition of outstanding contributions that have had major impacts on the field of management. A frequent speaker and workshop facilitator, Barry has also been a visiting professor at the University of Western Australia, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Sabanci University (Turkey).
Barry received his baccalaureate degree with honors in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his master's degree in public administration from The Ohio State University, and his doctoral degree in organizational behavior and administrative theory from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Having consulted with a wide variety of public- and private-sector organizations around the globe, Barry also works at a strategic level with a number of community-based organizations, currently sitting on the board of directors of EMQ Family First. He has served previously on the board of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay, San Jose Repertory Theater, Public Allies, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Santa Clara County, the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits, Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, and several start-up companies. Barry can be reached at [email protected].