The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Exemplary Leaders (review)

The Student Leadership Challenge is based on the findings outlined in Kouzes and Posner’s classic work The Leadership Challenge. “The fundamental purpose of The Student Leadership Challenge is to assist students—whether in a formal or unofficial leadership position or not—in furthering their abilities to lead others to get extraordinary things done” (Kouzes & Posner, 2008b, p. 2). The book is written so that undergraduate student leaders may strengthen their leadership abilities and is intended to be practical and inspirational. Kouzes and Posner wrote this book with the goal of long-term leadership development of people, communities, and institutions so they can adapt, change, prosper and grow. The authors argued that “Leadership is an observable, learnable set of practices. Leadership is not something mystical and ethereal that cannot be understood by ordinary people. Given the opportunity for feedback and practice, those with the desire and persistence to lead—to make a difference—can substantially improve their abilities to do so” (p. 9). This philosophy serves as the foundation for the book. In order to embrace the ideas outlined, the reader needs to understand that the authors write from the vantage point that everyone can be leader and that leadership is a learned skill.

Authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner are nationally recognized experts in the area of leadership development and are both affiliated with the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara. Together they have authored nine books, dozens of articles, and numerous chapters on leadership. They are most widely known for The Leadership Challenge which is in its fourth edition and has sold over 1.6 million copies. They bring their expertise to the pages of this helpful and practical book for college students engaged in leading.

This book reinforces their familiar 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 and then applies them to a collegiate setting. While this is a helpful guide for anyone who wants to improve his or her leadership skills, it is targeted to undergraduate college students. The book is full of student examples that are relevant to college students today. The page book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 overviews Kouzes and Posner’s perspective on leadership as a learned skill. Chapter 2 provides a brief summary of their five exemplary leadership practices. Chapters three through seven detail the five leadership practices in more depth. These chapters include collegiate examples and relevant explanations of each concept. Quotes from actual college students are infused throughout each chapter. At the end of each chapter, a section entitled review and practice offers reinforcing activities and summaries for major chapter concepts. Also included is a series of additional activities for future reflection. The final chapter of this book calls leaders to action. The authors reinforce everyone’s personal responsibility to model leadership and that “the first place to look for leadership is within yourself ” (p. 142). The book concludes with an overview of the Student Leadership Practices Inventory. Information about the instrument and how to complete the assessment are available.

Everything in the book is evidence-based. The authors draw their conclusions from interviews and a survey of more than 3,000 leaders from a variety of levels from diverse backgrounds in education, business, community, and government. The authors reference their research, draw in practical examples and share wisdom from student leaders who were participants in their study. Thy provide examples of collegiate leadership at its best. The shared stories are based on real-life experiences of college students and draw upon examples of leadership within residence life, Greek life, student government, and other student organizations. It is a book about college students, written for college students.

Intended as a textbook or guidebook for undergraduates who are developing their leadership potential, this work reads like a conversation between the authors and the college student leader. The...