Jim Kouzes spoke at the Retail Consortium for Management Education (RCME) and offered leadership lessons from his bestselling book The Leadership Challenge.
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As an Eagle Scout serving in the honor guard at John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Inauguration, Jim Kouzes took to heart the admonition to “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Early stints with the Peace Corps and the Community Action Program propelled Kouzes into a lifelong commitment to service and a career in education. More than four decades later, he is a well-known author and leadership scholar and has been lauded as one of the 12 best executive educators in the country by the Wall Street Journal.
The fourth edition of his bestseller The Leadership Challenge, co-authored with Barry Posner, reveals insight into leaders’ long-term contributions, not only their temporary accomplishments. Kouzes shared leadership lessons from his latest book with members of the Retail Consortium for Management Education (RCME), and recommended ways to reflect on one’s legacy.
“If we’re clear about what we want to leave behind when we’re gone (whether it’s gone from the organization or passed on to another life), we’re much more likely to take action,” says Kouzes, chairman emeritus of the Tom Peters Company.
Kouzes reviewed nine leadership lessons gathered from 25 years of research and provided a specific action item related to each lesson. He also promised to divulge “the secret to success in life” at the end of his talk.
You are the most important leader. Where do our leadership role models come from? Not from politicians, entertainers, or sports figures. The leaders who have the most influence on our day-to-day behavior are those closest to us: family members, teachers, and coaches. They impress us the most, and we get those impressions very early in life. “You could possibly be a leadership role model for somebody. That raises an interesting question for each and every one of us: If someone just might be looking at us as a model of leadership, what’s our responsibility? To be below average, average, or the best we can be?” asks Kouzes.
Managers have much more daily influence on their direct reports than CEOs. And turnover is directly correlated with whether employees rate their frontline supervisor as excellent or poor.
Action Item: Take one hour with each of your constituents and simply have a conversation about what they expect of you.
We all want to lead lives of significance. “When you talk about leadership to as many people as Barry and I have, certain themes pop to the top. One of them is that each of us really does yearn to make a contribution,” says Kouzes.
Kouzes believes that the impulse to help our children and future generations lies behind the motivation to make a long-term contribution.
Action item: Imagine it’s the year 2020, and they’re holding a ceremony for you as Leader of the Year. What do you hope others will say about you that night?
Leadership is personal. To be trusted, leaders have to be prepared to answer questions from their constituents about their qualifications, such as: “What do you care about? What do you believe in? Tell me what you stand for. Tell me why I should be following you.”
“The highest level of personal commitment to an organization comes when people are clear about their own and the organization’s values. We want to stay and work hard and be committed to organizations whose values are compatible with our own,” says Kouzes.
People who are clear about their personal values are more resilient—they bounce back from difficulty more quickly—than people who are not.
Action item: Write out your TIBs (This I Believe), your credo memo, your values, and share them with your team. Ask each member to do the same.
Jim Kouzes speaking to RCME attendees.
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Leaders should want to be liked. Some conventional wisdom about management and leadership is “absolutely, flat-out wrong,” says Kouzes.
“It’s wrong to say we shouldn’t be friends with our employees. It’s wrong to say that ‘people shouldn’t like us as leaders, they should only respect us.’ These are myths. If we base our behavior on myths, we are much less likely to be effective.”
“Those people who respond to their supervisor more positively are more likely to stick around. They’re higher performers; they like their jobs better. And customers will be more satisfied if people like their immediate managers.”
If you are friends with your manager, you are 2.5 times more likely to be satisfied with your job.
Action item: In every interaction with every person, ask yourself, “What can I do in this moment to make others feel powerful, competent, and able to do more than they think they can?”
It’s not just the leader’s vision. “Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue,” says Kouzes.
Being forward-looking is a defining characteristic of leaders: they talk about time horizons 10-15 years down the road.
“The thing that gives them the right to have other people follow them is their personal integrity. But the thing that differentiates leaders from other credible people is being forward-looking,” say Kouzes.
Yet consistently, throughout 25 years of research, the challenge of “inspiring a shared vision” remains the most difficult practice for leaders.
“As leaders, we have to become extraordinarily good at describing a compelling image, not just have one in our heads…we’re not very good at getting other people to see themselves in the picture.”
Workers who seem themselves in the picture painted by the leader are more likely to align and work collaboratively.
Action item: For five minutes, make the only topic of conversation the exciting possibilities you and others foresee for the future.
It takes courage to make a life. Kouzes illustrated this point with the 1961 story of Rosa Parks, a seamstress who demonstrated a moment of courage and was prepared to accept the consequences of her actions. That small act was the spark that lit the civil rights movement.
Three lessons can be learned from her story: 1) Little acts can have a huge impact, 2) One person can make a difference, and 3) Courageous acts flow from our beliefs.
“Adversity really does reveal what we stand for and believe in. To defy convention, to work toward something that is an exciting possibility for the future, to stand up for your beliefs, to leave a lasting legacy…..requires courage.”
Action item: Recall a moment of courage, a time when you had the “courage of your convictions.” What does this story teach you about yourself?
Failure is always an option. Kouzes asked the group if there was anyone in the room who, after installing new software, saved time and was more productive the very first time they tried it.
“The worst advice we’ve ever given anyone in business is ‘get it right the first time. It is flat-out wrong. It destroyed people’s willingness to risk and be innovative more than any other single phrase in business. No one who ever did anything of any significance got it right the first time.”
People with a learning mindset consider failure an opportunity to get feedback and to improve their skills and abilities. They understand that it is effort that enables them to improve, not their natural talent.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. That motivated him to practice more. Tiger Woods and the top students at Julliard understand that it’s deliberate practice that makes them experts.
“Persevere, keep learning, you will get better and will be more productive if you keep working at it. Any learning style that works for you is the one you want to engage in. Just do it more frequently than others in order to be better at something,” says Kouzes.
Action item: Debrief failure by asking, “What can we learn from this experience?” Debrief success by asking, “What kind of effort and commitment did it take to get these results?”
No one wants to be an assumption. When you get encouragement, does it help you perform at a higher level? Ninety-eight percent of responders said yes to this survey question.
All performers need positive feedback to perform at their best. The type of feedback should be what the individual likes, wants, and needs to feel encouraged.
“The way you behave toward others can make them want to be better. To want to achieve more, to feel better about themselves.”
According to studies, there exists a magic ratio of positive-to-negative comments and nonverbal interactions that determines whether or not a person will feel fully engaged in any relationship. If you’re at work, the ratio is 3:1; at home, it’s 5:1.
“We are a species that requires positive, positive, positive in order to perform at our highest level. Not negative, negative, negative,” says Kouzes.
Action item: Every morning at the Ritz Carlton worldwide, they tell “Wow” stories spotlighting what someone has done to contribute to organizational values and performance. Tell a “Wow” story everyday.
The legacy you leave is the life you lead. The most important leadership actions you take are the ones you take today.
“Leadership is about what’s happening every moment. Based on research, an average interaction lasts about three minutes. There are about 160 “moments” in an 8-hour workday where we can make a choice. We can be positive or negative, say thank you, give a compliment, show a good example, help someone succeed, live by our values,” says Kouzes.
Action item: At the end of every day, ask yourself, “What have I done today that demonstrates to other people that I am fully committed to the values that I believe in?”
Secret to Success in Life. During his research, Kouzes asked interviewees to describe their personal best leadership experience. Major General John Stanford of the U.S. Army gave him the best answer he heard.
“The secret to success is stay in love. Staying in love gives you the fire to really stay excited and ignited to get more things done. A person who’s not in love doesn’t really feel the kind of excitement that helps them to get ahead and to lead others and to achieve. I don’t know any other fire, any other thing in life, that is a more positive and exhilarating feeling than love.”
Cynthia Gamage
Associate Director- RMI,
Program Director- RCME
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Retail Consortium for
Management Education
The Institute’s series of programs offered through the Retail Consortium for Management Education (RCME) focuses on seminars that are designed to bring leading-edge concepts that are important to senior management. Through the seminars, RCME members have access to powerful speakers and pertinent programs that get to the heart of current leadership and management concerns in their organizations.
More information on RCME programs
or call Cynthia Gamage at 408.554.4961
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