Ten Commitments of Leadership--Kouzes & Posner

Kouzes and Posner write in their classic leadership book, The Challenge of Leadership, Jossey Bass (copyrights 1995), that through their research of over 60,000 leaders across continents, they've uncovered 5 practices and 10 commitments of excellent leaders:

Practice Number One: Leaders Challenge the Process

• Commitment #1: Leaders search out challenging opportunities to change, grow, and improve.
• Commitment #2: Leaders experiment, take risks, and learn from the accompanying mistakes.

Practice Number Two: Leaders Inspire a Shared Vision

• Commitment #3: Leaders envision an uplifting and ennobling future.
  
• Commitment #4: Leaders enlist others in a common vision by appealing to their values, interests, hopes, and dreams.

Practice Number Three: Leaders Enable Others to Act.

• Commitment #5: Leaders foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.
• Commitment #6: Leaders strengthen people by giving power away, providing choice, developing competence, assigning critical tasks, and offering visible support.

Practice Number Four: Leaders Model the Way.

• Commitment #7: Leaders set the example by behaving in ways that are consistent with shared values.
• Commitment #8: Leaders achieve small wins that promote consistent progress and build commitment.

Practice Number Five: Leaders Encourage the Heart.

• Commitment #9: Leaders recognize individual contributions to the success of every project.
• Commitment #10: Leaders celebrate team accomplishments regularly.