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 you apply them to a project of your own.

MODEL THE WAY

Titles are granted, but it's your behavior that wins you respect. If you want to gain commitment and achieve the highest standards, you must be a model of the behavior that you expect of others.

To model effectively, you must first be clear about your guiding principles. As a leader, you are supposed to stand up for your beliefs, so you had better have some solid beliefs to stand up for. The first commitments you must make, then, are to clarify values by finding your voice and to affirm shared values and express them in a style that is authentically your own.

Eloquent speeches about your personal values are not nearly enough. Your deeds are far more important than your words when expressing how serious you are about what you say, and your words and deeds must be consistent. Exemplary leaders set the example by aligning actions with shared values. You go first by setting the example through daily actions that demonstrate you are deeply committed to your beliefs. You take the actions necessary to build consensus around shared values. You can't impose your values on others, no matter how hard you try or how much power you have. Unless values are shared among all those who work together, intense commitment is impossible. What you get instead is simply compliance.

The personal‐best projects we heard about were all distinguished by relentless effort, steadfastness, competence, and attention to detail. We were struck by how the actions leaders took to set the example were often simple things. Sure, leaders had operational and strategic plans, but the actions they described were all the day‐to‐day things they did to practice what they preached.

You set the example by spending time with someone, working side by side with colleagues, telling stories that make the values come alive, being highly visible during times of uncertainty, and asking questions to help people to think about values and priorities. Model the Way is essentially about earning the right and the respect to lead through direct individual involvement and action. People have to believe in the messenger or they won't pay attention to the message. They first follow the person, then the plan.

INSPIRE A SHARED VISION

In describing their Personal‐Best Leadership Experiences, people recounted times when they imagined an exciting, highly attractive future for their organization. They had visions and dreams of what could be. They had absolute and total personal belief in those dreams, and they were confident in their abilities to make extraordinary things happen. Every organization, every social movement, begins with a vision: it is the force that energizes the creation of the future.

Leaders envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities. They gaze across the horizon of time, imagining the attractive opportunities that are in store once they and their constituents arrive at the final destination. Leaders have a desire to make something happen, to change how things are, to create something that no one else has ever created before.

Before they even begin a project, leaders need both a realistic sense of the past and a clear vision of what success should look like. They draw on the lessons from what has gone before, and they communicate a clear view of the future that pulls them forward.

Yet a vision seen only by a leader is insufficient to create an organized movement or significant change. People want to be involved in this process. You can't command commitment; you have to inspire it. You have to enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

To enlist people in a vision, you must know your constituents and be able to relate to them in ways that energize and uplift them. People must believe that their leaders understand their needs and have their interests at heart. Only through an intimate knowledge of their dreams, hopes, aspirations, visions, and values are you able to enlist support. Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. In these times of rapid change and uncertainty, people want to follow those who can see beyond today's difficulties and imagine a brighter future. Leaders breathe life into the hopes and dreams of others and enable them to see the exciting possibilities that tomorrow holds. To embrace the vision and make it their own, people have to see themselves as part of that vision and as able to contribute to its realization. Clearly expressing your enthusiasm and excitement for the shared vision ignites the same passion in others.

Without exception, the leaders we have studied reported that they were incredibly enthusiastic about their personal‐best projects. Their own excitement was catching; it spread from leader to constituents. Their belief in and commitment to the vision were the sparks that ignited the flame of inspiration.

CHALLENGE THE PROCESS

Challenge is the crucible for greatness. The leaders we studied did not sit idle, waiting for fate to smile upon them; they ventured out. None achieved their personal best by keeping things the same. Instead, all their personal bests involved some kind of challenge, and all the leaders embraced the challenge as an opportunity to grow, innovate, and improve. Whatever the challenge—developing a new product or business, shaping a groundbreaking piece of legislation, or turning around a failing school—every personal‐best experience involved a change from the status quo. Not one person claimed to have done their personal best by keeping things the same. All leaders break the “business‐as‐usual” mold.

Leaders are pioneers—people who are willing to step out into the unknown. They search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.

But it's impossible for any leader to be the only creator or originator of new products, services, or processes. Product and service innovations tend to come from customers, clients, vendors, people in the labs, and people on the front lines, while process innovations tend to come from the people doing the work. Leaders know that innovation comes more from listening than from telling. They are constantly looking outside of themselves and their organization for new ideas and new ways of doing things, and they are willing to challenge the system in order to make extraordinary things happen.

Leaders also know that innovation and change require them to experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience. Incremental steps and little victories one after another build enough confidence to meet even the biggest challenges and strengthen commitment to the long‐term future. But not everyone is equally comfortable with risk and uncertainty. You also must pay attention to the capacity of your constituents to take control of challenging situations and become fully committed to change.

Yet even the most prepared and skilled people never succeed at 100 percent of what they do, especially when they are taking big risks and experimenting with new, untried concepts and methods. Risk and experimentation are always accompanied by mistakes and failure. The key that unlocks the door to opportunity is learning. Great leaders are great learners. They learn from their failures as well as their successes, and they create a climate in which they can help others do the same

ENABLE OTHERS TO ACT

Grand dreams do not become significant realities through the actions of a single leader. Leadership is a team effort. After reviewing thousands of Personal‐Best Leadership Experiences, we developed a simple test to detect whether someone is on the road to becoming a leader: the frequency with which they use the word we rather than I.

Exemplary leaders Enable Others to Act. They foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships. This sense of teamwork goes far beyond a few direct reports or close confidants. As the need for more inclusiveness grows, organizations become more global, and work‐from‐anywhere becomes more common, you need to find ways to connect with more diverse and often far‐flung constituents. You have to engage everyone who must make the project work—and in some way, all those who must live with the results.

Leaders make it possible for others to do good work. They know that no one does their best when feeling weak, incompetent, or alienated. When you strengthen others by increasing self‐determination and developing competence, they are more likely to be engaged and produce exceptional results. Exemplary leaders work to make people feel strong, capable, and committed. They don't hoard their power; they give it away.

In the personal‐best cases we analyzed, leaders proudly discussed teamwork, trust, and empowerment as essential elements of their efforts. Focusing on serving others’ needs helps to build trust in you as a leader. When people trust their leaders and one another, they are more able to take risks and use their energy to produce extraordinary results.

ENCOURAGE THE HEART

The climb to the top is arduous and steep. People become exhausted, frustrated, and disenchanted. They are often tempted to give up. Leaders Encourage the Heart of their constituents to carry on. Genuine acts of caring uplift the spirit and draw people forward. No one likes to be taken for granted.

Leaders recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence. In the personal‐best cases we collected, there were thousands of examples of individual recognition and group celebration, from handwritten thank‐you notes to marching bands to elaborate “This Is Your Life” ceremonies.

Being a leader not only requires showing appreciation for people's contributions, leaders also create a culture of celebrating the values and victories by creating a spirit of community. Celebrations are not all about fun and games, although there is a lot of fun and there are a lot of games when you Encourage the Hearts of your constituents. Neither are they about pretentious ceremonies designed to create a phony sense of camaraderie. When people observe a charlatan making noisy affectations, they turn away in disgust. Encouragement is curiously serious business. It's how leaders visibly and behaviorally link rewards with performance. When done authentically and from the heart, celebrations build a sense of collective identity and community spirit that can carry a group through extraordinarily tough times.

When striving to raise quality, recover from disaster, start up a new service, or make dramatic change of any kind, leaders make sure people see the benefit of the behavior that's aligned with cherished values, including reminders that success is a function of everyone's efforts and achieved through working together as a team.

THE FIVE PRACTICES AND TEN COMMITMENTS OF LEADERSHIP

Embedded in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® are behaviors that can serve as the basis for learning to lead. We call these The Ten Commitments of Leadership. The Five Practices and The Ten Commitments serve as the structure for this workbook and the foundation for the activities. You will apply them to your project in the chapters that follow.

Take a look at the following page for a summary of The Five Practices and The Ten Commitments. They're what leaders use to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. Let them be your guide on your journey to success.

Model the Way		Clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared values. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.
Inspire a Shared Vision		Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.
Challenge the Process		Search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience.
Enable Others to Act		Foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships. Strengthen others by increasing self‐determination and developing competence.
Encourage the Heart		Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.