Leadership Practices

Inventory (LPI)

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)

5 practices and commitments associated with LPI:– Challenging the process– Inspiring a shared vision– Enabling others to act– Modeling the way– Encouraging the heart

Practice 1: Challenging the Process

– Search for opportunities to change the status quo and improve an organization.

– Experiment and take risks.– Continually learn from mistakes and failures.

Practice 2: Inspiring a Shared Vision

– Believe you can make a difference.– Envision the future. – Be enthusiastic and passionate about your vision.– Create an ideal and unique image of what the

organization can become.– Enlist others in your dreams.

Practice 3: Enabling Others to Act– Foster collaboration and build spirited

teams.– Actively involve others.– Share power and provide choice.– Promote shared goals.– Cultivate accountability and ownership

for achievements.– Strive to create an atmosphere of

trust, respect, and human dignity.

Practice 4: Modeling the Way

– Establish principles concerning the way people should be treated and the way goals should be pursued.

– Create standards of excellence and set an example for others to follow.

‒ Set interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work toward larger objectives.

– Try to eliminate or reduce bureaucracy when it interferes with getting work done.

Practice 5: Encouraging the Heart

– Recognize contributions that individuals make (thank-you notes, smiles, awards, public praise).

– Visibly celebrate team accomplishments.

– Make people feel like heroes.

The LPI

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), Self Instrument (3rd Edition)

• 30-item self-test developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

• Approaches leadership as a measurable, learnable, and teachable set of behaviors

The LPI1. Score yourself using the Leadership Practices Inventory

(LPI) Self Instrument.2. Use scale of 1-10 explained on Inventory.3. Transfer your scores to the Response Sheet. The scores

in each column represent your responses to six statements about each of the five leadership practices.

4. The score for each practice can range from a high of 60 to a low of 6.

5. Your scores are private and will remain so unless you wish to share them.

Scoring

• Column 1: Modeling the Way• Column 2: Inspiring a Vision• Column 3: Challenging the Process• Column 4: Enabling Others to Act• Column 5: Encourage the Heart

GROUP ACTIVITY

• Choose a leadership practice.• Brainstorm strategies for developing the

practice.• Present to the large group.

Challenging the Process

• Take risks and honor others who do.• Question the way things are done and suggest new

systems and procedures.• Treat each assignment as a chance to make things

change for the better in an organization.• Find something broken and fix it.

Inspiring a Shared Vision

• Know others- enlist their support by appealing to their values, interests, hopes and dreams.

• Orient your thinking to the future.• Hold an image of the end result.• Create a succinct statement or

presentation about what you are trying to accomplish.

Enabling Others to Act

• Always say “we.”• Delegate to others and help them

succeed.• Involve people in planning and

problem solving.• Build up others.• Create a climate of trust.• Share information and power.• Focus on gains rather than losses.

Modeling the Way• Lead others where you are also

willing to go.• Know your own basic set of values

and talk to people about them.• Do what you say you are going to do.• Walk the halls.• Encourage ethical behavior. • Establish norms about hard work

and caring.• Decrease job stress and tension.

Encouraging the Heart

• Say “thank you.”• Celebrate team

accomplishments.• Install a systematic process to

reward performance.• Be creative about rewards.• Make recognition public.• Look for people doing

something right.

Leading From Within

• It takes courage to examine one’s inner life.• LPI is one way to expand self-examination and

growth.• The journey is downward and inward.

"To manage yourself, use your head;

to manage others, use your heart." -African Proverb