The Leadership Challenge Workbook, 4th Edition

The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership

WE'VE BEEN CONDUCTING INTENSIVE RESEARCH on leadership since 1982. During that entire time, we have consistently chosen not to focus on the people in positions of power who make headlines. Instead, we've always wanted to know what the vast majority of leaders do—those ordinary people who make extraordinary things happen in organizations. To that end, we have concentrated our research on the everyday people who lead project teams, manage departments, administer schools, organize community groups, and volunteer for student and civic organizations.

To conduct our research, we've asked thousands of people, in writing and in interviews, to tell us about their Personal‐Best Leadership Experiences. We asked each person to select a project, program, or significant event that they believed represented their own “best practices” leadership experience—the one they personally recalled when thinking about a peak leadership performance.

Despite the differences in people's individual stories, their Personal‐Best Leadership Experiences revealed similar patterns of action. We found that when leaders are at their personal best, they engage in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. They:

• Model the Way
• Inspire a Shared Vision
• Challenge the Process
• Enable Others to Act
• Encourage the Heart

Let's take a brief look at each of these practices before ...