Encouraging the Heart

Human-centered leadership insights from the leading experts on the subject In the newly revised second edition of Encouraging the Heart: Igniting Purpose and Providing Meaningful Recognition, renowned leadership experts and best-selling authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner deliver an incisive and practical playbook for leaders who want to inspire their followers to achieve extraordinary things. They've packed the book with real-world examples, practical ideas, and eye-opening advice drawn from over four decades of work with countless business leaders. Encouraging the Heart is not a book about incentive systems or reward programs. It goes beyond those things to discuss universal leadership principles that will help elevate your people to new levels of productivity, engagement, and performance. It's a hands-on roadmap containing behaviors, principles, practices, evidence, and examples that will form the foundation of a repeatable process you can put into place at your own organization. Inside the book you'll find strategies for: Setting clear standards aligned with your organization's purpose Paying attention to exemplary actions and telling memorable stories that motivate action and enact change Noticing exemplars of values and standards and publicly praising them with personalized feedback and appreciation that encourages others to live up to their example Setting a personal example of meaningful ways to recognize others and celebrate values and victories Encouraging the Heart is a must-read for leaders of all kinds, regardless of position or function, at organizations of all sizes, in the public and private sectors who wish to help those around them realize their full potential.

Introduction 1 Part One 1 The Heart of Leadership 13 2 The Seven Essentials of Encouraging 27 3 The Leadership Encouragement Index 45 Part Two 4 The First Essential: Set Clear Standards Aligned with Purpose 57 5 The Second Essential: Expect the Best 75 6 The Third Essential: Pay Attention 91 7 The Fourth Essential: Personalize Recognition 107 8 The Fifth Essential: Tell the Story 125 9 The Sixth Essential: Celebrate Together 143 10 The Seventh Essential: Set the Example 161 Part Three 11 Leadership Is an Affair of the Heart 181 12 101 Ways to Encourage the Heart 189 Notes 207 Acknowledgments 229 About the Authors 231 Index 235