Leadership is social influence through ideas and deeds and the result is change. Kouzes and Posner describe the five practices of exemplary leadership that research suggests can be learned:
Model the way
Inspire a shared vision
3 .Challenge the process
Enable others to act
Encourage the heart
But there is no assurance that each and every leader will follow these practices and be exemplary. These are the qualities of leaders a lot of people admire. There are some leaders who are not liked or admired by the people who show the contrasting leadership practices. (Shrestha, 2017) has outlined the following five practices that contrast with the list above. They are:
1. Model the way with command
Leaders are supposed to model the way by finding their voice and setting an example (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). But there are some leaders who try to lead the team members by giving instructions and commands. They may commit to follow or implement certain models and ask the team members to do the same. But there are very few who will stand by their words. In Nepalese context, most of the political leaders lack credibility because they fail to do what they say. The government officials who advocate about anti-corruption are caught red-handed taking bribe which is a perfect example of how leaders fail to model the way.
2. Inspire a shared vision with formal power leader
Leaders need to inspire a shared vision by envisioning the future and enlisting others in a common vision (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). But most leaders lack in sharing the vision with the team members. The vision is known only to the people in power and title. The employees or team members are instructed to act on certain guidelines to reach to the vision they are not aware of. It is like travelling in a bus where only the driver knows where the bus is heading.
3. Challenge the process over peoples feeling
Good leaders challenge the process by searching for opportunities, experimenting, taking risks and learning from mistakes (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). In doing so, the people and communication should be given more value than the process and tools. But often times in challenging the status quo and being in the race to be in the top, leaders tend to play with the psychological feelings of the team members to get the work done. If a company working manually decided to switch to computerized system, it will invest more time in developing the process than developing the competencies of the people and still expect them to adapt to the change easily. This act gives mental pressure to the employees as failure to get acquainted with the new system may prove them incompetent that may lead to leadership failure.
4. Enable others to act with fear
Exemplary leaders enable others to act by fostering collaboration and strengthening the team members (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). On the other hand there are some leaders who make people accomplish a certain task by means of threat and fear. They think as a leader they have the right to order the team members to do what they want. For example, if an employee is not willing to do a task assigned to him because he did not understand the significance of the task. Instead of giving him an explanation the manager might just make him do it by threatening to kick him out of the job if he fails to deliver what is desired of him.
5. Encourage the heart with public shaming
Good leaders encourage the heart by recognizing contribution and celebrating values and victories (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). On the contrary, there are leaders who find it very difficult to appreciate others but never leave a chance to demotivate them by pinpointing the minor mistake they have once committed every time. I have seen a manager who always make fun of his assistant in front of other employees for not being able to speak English fluently but never appreciates the effort she is putting in learning English.
References:
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2003). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. A Wiley Imprint.
Shrestha, Y. M. (2017, September 27). Leadership Practices that Contrast with the 5 Exemplary Practices Defined by Kouzes and Posner. Retrieved from Medium: medium.com
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where students share, stay up-to-date, learn and grow.
Leadership is social influence through ideas and deeds and the result is change. Kouzes and Posner describe the five practices of exemplary leadership that research suggests can be learned:
1. Model the way with command
Leaders are supposed to model the way by finding their voice and setting an example (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). But there are some leaders who try to lead the team members by giving instructions and commands. They may commit to follow or implement certain models and ask the team members to do the same. But there are very few who will stand by their words. In Nepalese context, most of the political leaders lack credibility because they fail to do what they say. The government officials who advocate about anti-corruption are caught red-handed taking bribe which is a perfect example of how leaders fail to model the way.
2. Inspire a shared vision with formal power leader
Leaders need to inspire a shared vision by envisioning the future and enlisting others in a common vision (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). But most leaders lack in sharing the vision with the team members. The vision is known only to the people in power and title. The employees or team members are instructed to act on certain guidelines to reach to the vision they are not aware of. It is like travelling in a bus where only the driver knows where the bus is heading.
3. Challenge the process over peoples feeling
Good leaders challenge the process by searching for opportunities, experimenting, taking risks and learning from mistakes (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). In doing so, the people and communication should be given more value than the process and tools. But often times in challenging the status quo and being in the race to be in the top, leaders tend to play with the psychological feelings of the team members to get the work done. If a company working manually decided to switch to computerized system, it will invest more time in developing the process than developing the competencies of the people and still expect them to adapt to the change easily. This act gives mental pressure to the employees as failure to get acquainted with the new system may prove them incompetent that may lead to leadership failure.
4. Enable others to act with fear
Exemplary leaders enable others to act by fostering collaboration and strengthening the team members (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). On the other hand there are some leaders who make people accomplish a certain task by means of threat and fear. They think as a leader they have the right to order the team members to do what they want. For example, if an employee is not willing to do a task assigned to him because he did not understand the significance of the task. Instead of giving him an explanation the manager might just make him do it by threatening to kick him out of the job if he fails to deliver what is desired of him.
5. Encourage the heart with public shaming
Good leaders encourage the heart by recognizing contribution and celebrating values and victories (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). On the contrary, there are leaders who find it very difficult to appreciate others but never leave a chance to demotivate them by pinpointing the minor mistake they have once committed every time. I have seen a manager who always make fun of his assistant in front of other employees for not being able to speak English fluently but never appreciates the effort she is putting in learning English.
References:
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2003). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. A Wiley Imprint.
Shrestha, Y. M. (2017, September 27). Leadership Practices that Contrast with the 5 Exemplary Practices Defined by Kouzes and Posner. Retrieved from Medium: medium.com