The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition

By: James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner

Narrated by: James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner

The Leadership Challenge has become one of the best-selling leadership books of all time. Now, with the publication of the fourth edition of their landmark book and for the first time on audio, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner celebrate 25 years of leadership excellence.

The Leadership Challenge, the most trusted source on becoming a better leader, has been thoroughly updated and revised for a new generation of leaders living and working in a global environment. Building on the knowledge base of the previous books, this fourth edition is grounded in research and presents extensive interviews with a diverse group of leaders at all levels in a wide variety of organizations from around the world. The authors emphasize that the fundamentals of leadership are not a fad. While the context of leadership has changed dramatically, the content of leadership has endured the test of time.

With scores of new case studies and a timeless and inspiring message, The Leadership Challenge is a "personal coach in a book", guiding listeners through the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. When leaders understand that leadership is a relationship and they begin to engage in the Five Practices (Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart), they are better able to embark on a lifetime of success and significance.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2007 James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (P)2007 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"An inspirational and practical handbook, this expanded revision of a best-selling manual originally published in 1987 offers sound advice....This new edition has been substantially updated to reflect the challenges of shrinking work forces, rising cynicism and expanded telecommunications." ( Publishers Weekly)

Lot of good information...

A lot of good information. Just be prepared after 3 or 4 chapters the rest either expound upon what was already discussed or try to demonstrate the practicality of what was already mentioned.

Great Book for Leadership Peer Groups

This book discusses in depth the five practices of exemplary leadership: 1) model the way, 2) inspire a shared vision, 3) challenge the process, 4) enable others to act, and 5) encourage the heart. The authors devote two chapters to each of these practices, with helpful summaries of key points at the end of each chapter. Although the book is chock full of great ideas, it is rather dense and can be hard to work through. Those who could benefit the most from the pearls of wisdom in this book are unlikely to have the kind of time it takes to really digest and absorb the practices outlined in this book. It would be a great book for a leadership peer group to use to help each other build and strengthen their leadership practice.

Read it for a college course

Would you consider the audio edition of The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition to be better than the print version?

I have both the book and audio. At times I followed along in the book from the audio. I had this for a college class and multiple homework assignments from it. I could read the chapters by audio and study for tests and/or homework with the book. It's excellent information.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No way. Information and concepts are too detailed.

Some good best practices

The authors did a mostly good job. I was disappointed though with their citing correlational studies as evidence of cause. Similarly, they use self-report, opinion studies to justify claims of a particular business practice's efficacy. Also distracting is the abundance of platitude.

All of this said, as a business manager myself, I highly recommend the book. In fact, I am encouraging my peers to also give the book a read. I say this because Kouzes and Pozner offer several pragmatic ideas and ways of conceptualizing the leadership role.

Solid

Very well researched information written in an easy to understand and apply style. Loved the book!

Booooooring

What disappointed you about The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition?

I had to read this for work and thought the audio copy might be easier to get through. It was like listening to paint dry.

What could James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Too repetitive! Too straight forward. So you created a survey about the leadership traits and called it the Leadership Traits Survey? How original.

What didn’t you like about James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner ’s performance?

Too dry. Needed more inflection in the voice, more passion, more enthusiasm.

What character would you cut from The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition?

I guess it's supposed to be a book for business leaders, but I would have liked more non-business examples of good leadership. Politics? Religion? Education? Family? Come on, mix it up.

Any additional comments?

I was disappointed because someone raved about the book and told me how great it was, but I feel like I only got a few nuggets of wisdom and a few "take aways." It probably would have been much easier to read as an article rather than an entire book.

Doesn't Match the Book!!!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This audible 4th edition doesn't match the book AT ALL. For example, Chapter 5 on Audible begins "Animate the vision. Leaders have to arouse others to enjoy in a cause..." In the book, Chapter 5 begins with "'Be an enzyme,' isa refrain that Pam Omidyar, founder of HopeLab, often repeats.

What was most disappointing about James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner ’s story?

The paper book is great but the Audible is utterly useless because it doesn't match the 4th edition (yellow cover) book.

Did James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

n/a

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger, because the Audible was useless for me.

Any additional comments?

I called the customer service line and the person who helped me simply read me another person's review in which the person says the book and Audible matched (I can ONLY assume that person had another edition of the book), and then suggested I return it if it didn't work for me.

Doesn’t match the book!

I bought the audible to go along with the book and it doesn’t match the book!!! Extremely disappointing.

Read the Table of Contents

Any additional comments?

Read the table of contents, and then imagine what you would think was important about these things. That's it, you just saved yourself 10 hours of listening to horrible narration of simple ideas.

Their primary method of determining good leadership is by taking results of surveys of what people think good leadership skills are. Maybe this type of analysis held up 20 years ago when this was first published, but it comes off as amateurish and lacking in concrete evidence today (not saying they are wrong, just their methodology is questionable).

don't waste your time with this one.