Quotes from James M. Kouzes

Unless people can find meaning and purpose in their work, they are not likely to stick around very long or put in the effort required to make a difference. These feelings are particularly important for leaders to tap into during times of high uncertainty.

Learning agility," as they define it, "is the ability to reflect on experience and then engage in new behaviors based on those reflections.

Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.

The best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present.

If you think you're a leader and you turn around and no one is following you, then you're simply out for a walk.

Leaders must know where they are going if they expect others to willingly join them on the journey.

If we're going to be authentic in our leadership, we will have to be willing to serve, and we have to be willing to suffer.

It always takes a group of people working together with a common purpose in an atmosphere of trust and collaboration to get extraordinary things done.

Showing appreciation for another's unique viewpoint demonstrates respect for them and their ideas. Being sensitive to what others are going through creates bonds that make it easier to accept one another's guidance and advice.

Meaning and purpose are vital to all generations at work.24 People have never stuck around for very long when what they do is trivial and unimportant.

Titles are granted, but it's your behavior that earns you respect.

if you want to have a significant impact on people, on organizations, and on communities, you'd be wise to invest in learning the behaviors that enable you to become the very best leader you can.

It's been said that only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance; everything else requires leadership.1

There's an African proverb that advises, "Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

show my trust in others in order to build their trust in me.

Listening is seen as one of the most important leadership skills.

Managers can threaten people with the loss of jobs if they don't get with the program, but threats, power, and position do not earn commitment. They earn compliance.

And compliance produces adequacy—not greatness. Only credibility earns commitment.

Before you can be a leader of others, you need to know clearly who you are and what your core values are. Once you know that, then you can give your voice to those values and feel comfortable sharing them with others." Arpana

Only credibility earns commitment.

You can't command commitment; you have to inspire it. You

Leadership has an impact on people's commitment, their desire to stay or leave, their willingness to put forth more discretionary effort, and their inclination to take personal initiative and responsibility. Bad leaders have a dampening effect on these things, and exemplary leaders have just the opposite effect. What sort of difference do you want to achieve through your leadership? The choice is yours.

The leader who has the most influence over your desire to stay or leave, your commitment to the organization's vision and values, your ethical decisions and actions, your treatment of customers, your ability to do your job well, and the direction of your career, to name but a few outcomes, is your most immediate manager.

The Kouzes-Posner First Law of Leadership: If you don't believe in the messenger, you won't believe the message. Leaders