Leadership in Higher Education: Practices That Make a Difference

By: James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

The authors of the classic best seller The Leadership Challenge bring their expertise to higher education, offering five practices that can make any college or university leader into an exemplary leader.

Drawing on the same pioneering research that formed the foundation of their classic best seller The Leadership Challenge (over 2.7 million copies sold), James Kouzes and Barry Posner offer a set of leadership skills and practices that will make a significant difference in every area of higher education - faculty, administration, library services, career counseling, auxiliary services, campus safety, and more. It’s about the behaviors that leaders, regardless of their position, use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, segments into solidarity, and risks into rewards.

Kouzes and Posner tell the leadership story from the inside and move outward, describing it first as a personal journey and then as mobilizing others to want to do things they have never done before. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership is the operating system for this adventure. Leadership in Higher Education explains the fundamental principles that support these practices and provides case examples of people in higher education who demonstrate each one.

A core theme that weaves its way through all the chapters is that, whether it’s one to one or one to many, leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. We need leaders who can unite us and ignite us. This book lights the way.

©2019 James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (P)2019 James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

Usable guide

I am excited about drawing from this book to improve in my current leadership position, and to thrive in the next leadership position.

a classic through a new lens

this was a helpful review as I move from one leadership in the military role into another one in higher education. I am sure it would be helpful for someone just discovering The Leadership Challenge, but I liked it as a reframing aide.