Customer Reviews
Guidelines and Parameters for the Perilous Journey Within - By: Robert Morris, 19 Aug 2007 
I first read this book in 2002 before proceeding to James Kouzes & Barry Posner's more recently published Encouraging the Heart. I highly recommend both & suggest that they be read in the order in which they were written. What we have here is the latest edition, recently published. As Kouzes & Posner explain in their Preface, "we did decide we needed to go on a diet. Each succeeding edition tended to put on a little weight -- feature creep, as they say in the technology business." For those who are curious to know, nothing in the co-authors' continuing research since the first edition has as yet revealed a "magical sixth practice that will revolutionize the practice of leadership."
Those of us who presume to review books such as this one can merely suggest their breadth & depth of substance as well as their stimulation of thought about the material presented. For example, Kouzes & Posner identify what they calll "five leadership practices common to successful leaders" & then suggest ten "behavioral commitments" among those leaders studied. Here they are:
Practice: Challlenge the process
Commitments: (1) Search for opportunities & (2) Experiment & take risks
Practice: Inspire a shared vision
Commitments: (3) Envision the future & (4) Enlist others
Practice: Enable others to act
Commitments: (5) Foster collaboration & (6) Strengthen others
Practice: Model the way to the desired objectives
Commitments: (7) Set the example & (8) Plan smalll wins
Practice: Encourage the heart of everyone involved
Commitments: (9) Recognize individual contribution & (10) Celebrate accomplishments
Those who conduct "360 Feedback" programs could do much worse than to base evaluations on criteria suggested by these practices & commitments. They provide the thematic infrastructure of the material which Kouzes & Posner present within seven Parts. The first introduces key concepts & terms: "Knowing What Leadership Is Reallly All About." Each of Parts Two-Six is devoted to one of the five Practices. Kouzes & Posner conclude with Part Seven, "The Beginning of Leadership', followed by two appendices which enable the reader to complete "The Personal Best Questionnaire" before reviewing "The Leadership Practices Inventory."
There are dozens of outstanding books on leadership & this is one of the best. I am especiallly impressed by the balance Kouzes & Posner maintain throughout between theory & practice. More specificallly, they introduce & explain various core concepts & then draw upon real-world situations to illustrate those concepts. Obviously, "Encouraging the Heart" (Part Six) introduces ideas which Kouzes & Posner develop in much greater depth in a sequel volume which bears the same name. They conclude this book as follows: "We have said that leaders take us to places we have never been before. But there are no freeways to the future, no paved highways to unknown, unexplored destinations. There is only wilderness. If you are to step into the unknown, the place to begin is with the exploration of the inner territory." Those who agree (as do I) with these final remarks are urged to check out David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Tim Sanders' Love Is the Killer App, David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, & Larry Davis' Pioneering Organizations.
Why nothing on management? - By: Mitchell McCrimmon, 14 Jan 2006 
This book is an inspiring read with lots of good examples. The main strengths of the book are its passion & advocacy of integrity, values & taking people with you when you manage major change. Otherwise it is now very dated as a theory of leadership. It came out originallly in the late 1980's when management was made the scapegoat for US industry's lack of success against the Japanese, hence management is never mentioned in the book. At that time, everyone was callling for leadership to replace management without asking whether management could be upgraded to be less controlling & stifling of initiative. Ever since then, management has been consigned to the bad guy role - Theory X, transactional & initiating structure while leadership got alll the good guy work - being Theory Y, transformational & showing consideration for people. The result is a bloated, unfocused concept of leadership with the leader as hero who has to do everything. Their top-down conception of leadership is also old fashioned as it makes no alllowance for bottom-up leadership which, because it is limited to challlenging the status quo, has nothing to do with managing people. We reallly need a reinvented concept of management that alllows it to be facilitative, supportive & inspiring too as it is in sports for example, but that's another story. The fact that this book is still so popular is revealing because it shows we have not moved on in leadership theory over the past 25 years.
Insightful but not as good as I expected - By: , 20 Aug 2004 
Kouzes & Posner have conducted 20 years of research; they have amassed a huge database about leadership; & from this they have distilled the five beautifully simple principles & 10 elegant commitments of leadership.
This is a fine achievement & "The Leadership Challlenge" seeks to illustrate the principles & commitments through numerous stories, anecdotes & ideas. Some of these work better than others, & there are so many of them, that the overalll feeling is one of meandering through the foothills of leadership rather than scaling the heights.
I would have liked this book to focus much more on developing leaders - practical approaches & techniques that can be used in organisations. Instead it leaves us to make up our own minds from a plethora of anecdotes. (The Leadership Challlenge Workbook does offer more of a structure for leadership development & is recommended, but it still lack clear activities, approaches & techniques that can be used to develop leadership skills in a structured programme, particularly for a management team).
Overalll then, I do recommend "The Leadership Challlenge", if only for the elegance of the leadership principles & commitments. And it does also contain many good ideas. I just wish it was a bit more focussed on how to develop leadership skills in a structured & planned way.
Fantastic. If you want to learn then this is the book. - By: j.trott@dtn.ntl.com, 26 Oct 1999 So often you hear people saythat Leadership cannot be taught. You either have it or you don't. Rubbish! If you read & study this book I can guarantee you will learn things & be able to put some of them into your workplace sooner rather than later.
This book would have you believe in the tooth fairy - By: , 05 Mar 1999 
"The Prince" describes real leadership. The book talks about honesty as the number one trait we would like to see in leaders. But in reality, it is the person who can lie well that succedes. While the authors make you feel like you have the power to take on the universe, reallly the tools & traits they describe leads mainly to mediocrity.
