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“To foster team spirit, breed optimism, promote resilience, and renew faith and confidence...In today’s uncertain times, leaders with a positive, confident, can-do approach to life and business are desperately needed.” —from The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition by Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner

Welcome to The Leadership Challenge Newsletter! This monthly publication shares stories, examples, and information about the impact of The Leadership Challenge in all kinds of organizations. As always, please let us know how we are doing by emailing leadershipchallenge@wiley.com; we may even contact you about featuring your ideas and stories in future editions of this newsletter.

Join the conversation on our Leadership Challenge blog: LeaderTalk

View The Leadership Challenge Forum 2009 Brochure (PDF)

Don’t miss—HR.com featuring Jim Kouzes in a webinar tomorrow, April 22.

Thoughts on the Model Set against the backdrop of our economic and political failings—from Wall Street to Washington—Steve Coats ruminates on the question of competence: where did it go and where do we look now for those who can navigate our treacherous seas. More

Tips and Techniques Zero in on helping your next group of aspiring leaders learn first-hand the importance of clear communication and setting an example with a quick-to-implement activity that promotes the practice of Model the Way. More

Ask an Expert Kelly Ann McKnight goes to the heart of what it takes to fully engage and motivate every member of your team—including young Millennials with their unique differences yet common need to be known and respected for the individuals they are. More

Rants and Raves When a children’s hospital in Texas faced an annual 48% turnover of quality RNs to care for life’s most vulnerable, a surgical unit director and her front-line nurse managers achieved a remarkable turnaround in retention and job satisfaction by applying the principles and practices of The Leadership Challenge. More

What We're Reading Part III of III In the previous two issues of The Leadership Challenge newsletter, contributor Dan Schwab considered the implications of our universal push for progress with an in-depth look at three important new works: Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded, Falling Off the Edge by Alex Perry, and The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones. This month, he concludes his commentary in this summary of how these three books, together, provide a valuable road map for the realities and hopes of the next few years. Developing an effective response to the challenges facing coming generations requires that we consider all of the factors Friedman, Perry, and Jones have identified. In fact, what makes these three books worth reading together is the composite view they give—not just of America, but of the world of 2009. We gain insight, in part, due to the fact that these books are reporting, not theory. As reports from the field that are wide, deep and compelling, these authors help us assemble a mosaic of the difficult and exciting road ahead of us. As Friedman keeps reminding us, America can "get its groove back," if we engage these central issues with the spirit that we have exhibited at other difficult times in our history. He reminds us of what has made us great: our values and principles, and our ability to produce extraordinary results when we are focused and well led. Throughout all three books, the link to leadership is clear. Meeting the challenges of the world as it is now, and as it will become, cries out for effective leadership everywhere. We will never be able to manage our way through what is coming at us. And I suggest that it is leadership that provides the platform, the master framework, for the human development needed to craft strategies that will "build a better world one leader at a time." Indeed, this is the central imperative of our time. With a new administration taking the stage—both domestically and internationally—and modeling a notably different leadership style, we are being called upon to answer the challenge of the day. And although the landscape we are entering is entirely different from what we have ever known, there is at least one thing we can be sure of: as leadership trainers, we need to accelerate our application of outsight in understanding this new world. Our focus must be on developing the profile of the “common leader” to tackle our daunting problems. And we must look everywhere for information and perspective to help these 'common' leaders succeed. The three books reviewed here represent excellent resources to help you work toward that goal. Dan Schwab is a leadership consultant and the former Director of Training and Organizational Development for the Trust for Public Land, one of America's most effective environmental charities. Dan's association with the Leadership Challenge began as a ropes course instructor with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner in the 1980's. A certified TLC facilitator, Dan delivers workshops to clients in the non-profit, governmental and corporate sectors and can be reached at danjschwab@gmail.com.

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