Encouraging the Heart : A Leader's Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others (J-B Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner)

James M. Kouzes | Barry Z. Posner

Leadership authorities James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner say employees perform best when their contributions are genuinely appreciated. Unfortunately, the two contend, most executives have not mastered the decidedly soft-management skill of "encouragement" that fosters such behavior. In Encouraging the Heart, they examine how this type of compassionate supervision is becoming a critical part of successful management today, and through example and suggestion they describe how readers can establish the process in their own businesses.

This is not a book about glad-handing and backslapping, gold stars, and payoffs. It's about the importance of linking rewards and appreciation to standards of excellence. It's about why encouragement is absolutely essential to sustaining people's commitment to organizations and outcomes. It's about the hard work it takes to get extraordinary things done in organizations, and it's about ways to enhance your own ability in--and comfort with--recognizing and celebrating the achievements of others.

The book's opening section introduces their concept of the caring leader; the second outlines their "seven essential principles" for encouraging workers; the third explains how the process can be personalized and describes 150 additional suggestions for implementing it. --Howard Rothman

1 Great Book. The Real World of Recognition.
News Flash: The people you work with are human beings. Here's a great book on how to convince them that you're one too. If you don't do a good job of recognizing others your organization is underperforming. Period.

I like the fact that Encouraging The Heart is not the usual collection of little vignettes about how CEOs do it. Those are good examples too, but CEOs make up such a small percentage of the population their experiences do not represent where the rest of us live. Instead, Kouzes and Posner provide real-world examples of how "normal" people exercise this crucial aspect of leadership. Lots of fun and interesting How-Tos, but more than that, a set of principles from which to think up your own ways of doing it.

Chapters 1-3 drive home the basic message that the best leaders care. They present research, a good case-study, and an assessment index for you. Chapters 4-10 explore the seven essentials in detail (setting clear standards, expecting the best, paying attention, personalizing recognition, storytelling, celebrating, and setting a good example.) Great stuff here. Chatper 11 is about finding your own voice and not operating out of someone else's vocabulary --a maturing process, and Chapter 12 has 150 ways to encourage covering all seven essential areas. The best book on recognition I've found.

2 Valuable Insights...Practical Advice
Those who have already read Kouzes and Posner's The Leadership Challenge will immediately realize that this volume provides a deeper examination of the concepts introduced in Part Six ("Encouraging the Heart") of the previously published work. After introducing and then discussing five "leadership practices common to successful leaders" and ten "behavioral commitments" among those leaders studied iwhile preparing to write The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner focus on recognizing contributions (i.e. linking rewards with performance) and celebrating accomplishments (i.e. valuing the victories) in Part Six. In this volume, these two "leadership commitments" receive their full attention. The material is carefully organized within 12 chapters which range from "The Heart of Leadership" to "150 Ways to Encourage the Heart." Why did they write this book? There are four reasons.

Practicality: "We wanted to offer a set of principles, practices, and examples that would provide leaders with a repeatable process -- a set of essential actions --they could apply in their own settings."

Principle: "In this book, we not only demonstrate that encouraging the heart is not soft; we show how powerful a force it is in achieving high standards and stretch goals."

Curiosity: "We've been intrigued for some time by this finding that] "female constituents do not report that their leaders encourage the heart any more than do male constituents, regardless of the gender of their leader] and we wanted to explore the practice in depth to see if we could understand more about these differences."

Finally, "...because we wanted to add our voices to the discussion of soul and spirit in the workplace."

Kouzes and Posner note that the word "encouragement" has its root in the Latin word "cor" which literally means "heart." (So does the word "courage.") To have courage is to have heart. To encourage -- to provide with or give courage -- literally means to give others heart. For me, there are at least three especially important core concepts: First, love what you do. Love those for whom you are responsible. And love them enough to set high standards for them and then give them hope that you and they can meet those standards. Second, don't think of leadership in terms of position, title, power, status, etc. Rather, think of it in terms of initiative. Encourage, recognize and reward initiative whenever and wherever you find it throughout your entire organization. Third and finally, practice what you preach and do that every day. The most effective leaders care....and care deeply. They have credibility because their values and behavior are in unshakable alignment. They have earned others' trust.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Tim Sanders' Love Is the Killer App, David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, and Larry Davis' Pioneering Organizations.

3 Seven Essentials to Encouraging the Heart.
"We're living in a time that holds great promise. New developments in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology promise that some of the deadliest and most disabling diseases may be cured or at least better managed. New information technologies promise not only to connect us globally and to create whole new forms of commerce but also to foster peace and expand the reaches of our educational systems. Fledgling democratic movements promise to free people from centuries of tyranny and fear. But what is a promise without hope-hope that these promises will be kept? Bold leadership is required if we are to keep these hopes alive...Encouraging the Heart is ultimately about keeping hope alive. Leaders keep hope alive when they set high standards and genuinely express optimism about an individual's capacity to achieve them. They keep hope alive when they give feedback and publicly recognize a job well done. They keep hope alive when they give their constituents the internal support that all human beings need to feel that they and their work are important and have meaning. They keep hope alive when they train and coach people to exceed their current capacities. Most important, leaders keep hope alive when they set an example. There really is nothing more encouraging than to see our leaders practice what they preach" (from the Introduction).

In this context, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner identify seven essentials to encouraging the heart. According to Kouzes and Posner, when leaders do their best to encourage the heart, they:

1. Set clear standards- The first prerequisite for encouraging the heart is to set clear standards (goals and values or principles). To be successful in encouraging the heart, it's absolutely critical that everyone cherish a common set of standards. It's certainly not very encouraging to be in the dark about what we're expected to achieve, or never to know where we stand relative to what's important. Only when we know the standards can we set our sights for success.

2. Expect the best- High expectations or low expectations both influence other people's performance. Only high expectations have a positive impact on actions and on feelings about oneself. Thus, passionately believing in people and expecting the best of them is another prerequisite to encouraging the heart.

3. Pay attention- One way of showing you care is to pay attention to people, to what they're doing, and to how they're feeling. If you are clear about the standards of behavior you're looking for and you believe and expect that people will perform like winners, then you're going to notice lots of examples of people doing things right, and doing the right things.

4. Personalize recognition- Before recognizing someone, the best leaders get to know people personally. They learn about their likes and dislikes, their needs and interests. They observe them in their own settings. Then, when it comes time to recognize a particular person, they know a way to make it special, meaningful, and memorable.

5. Tell the story- Although the live example is the most powerful of ways to publicize what people do to exemplify values, there are other media available to leaders. Newsletters, annual reports, advertisement, even voice mail and e-mail can be used to encourage the heart and teach positive stories about what people do to exemplify our values. These media sure are a lot more powerful than posting our values on a wall somewhere.

6. Celebrate together- Public ceremonies bring people closer together. As we move to a more virtual world, where communication is by voice mail, e-mail, cell phone, videoconference, and pager, it's becoming ever more difficult for people to find opportunities to be together. We are social animals, and we need each other. Those who are fortunate enough to have lots of social support are healtier human beings than those who have a little. Social support is absolutely essential to our well-being and to our productivity. Celebrating together is one way we can get this essential support.

7. Set the example- Setting the example for encouraging the heart starts by giving youself permission to do so. It starts with putting it in your daily planner. It starts with putting a sign by your door. It starts when you talk to everyone about it. It starts when you turn a routine task into something fun. It starts by giving to others first. It starts when you get personally involved. When leaders do get personally involved in encouraging the heart, the results are always the same: the receiver and the giver both feel uplifted. The reflection in the mirror is the one you portray.

Highly recommended.

4 The oil for the engine of managing
This wonderful book touches a much-neglected and much-needed segment of management today .... the business case for managers to also be human beings and recognize the humanity of their coworkers and subordinates and themselves when managing.

I am a human resources manager at a utility company. We have many engineers and managers who are familiar and attracted to harder mangement concepts of process, rules, and equations, but are sometimes confounded as to why, with people, 1 + 1 consistently = 3. This book takes a big step toward answering that question with research, examples and tips to try. It shows that managing without recognition and encouragement is like running an engine without oiling it --possible - if not totally enjoyable - in the short-term, but with very negative long term consequences.

For those who like this book, I also recommend James A Autrey's "Love and Profit: Art of Caring Leadership." (available on amazon.com) or the videotape of Mr Autrey's presentation of that material. We changed our company personnel policies to reflect these management concepts and it helped with a culture shift we are working on at the company.

5 150 Ways to Encourage The Heart
I felt that this book by Kouzes and Posner presented wonderful ideas for leaders. It seemed more directed towards managers of organizations than leaders in general. I was very impressed with the seven essential steps that were offered. It opened up a whole new avenue for putting your heart into a job. I do feel that this book could have been titled, "150 Ways to Encourage the Heart." This book seemed completely repetitive in the last chapter and could have cut down the 11 chapters before it. However this book did offer wonderful ideas for caring leaders and I would recommend it.

6 Encouraging the Heart
This is a tremendous guide for analyzing and evaluating our personal attitudes, behaviors, and practices we display in both our personal and professional lives. Encouraging the Heart offers a fresh perspective that embraces the heart of leadership. It is motivationl and inspirational, yet gets beyond the "pep rally fluff" by providing real-life applications for a better understanding of what it means to lead and influence others.

7 Review
Encouraging the Heart's greatest asset is the stories of regular managers and leaders who employ various means to reward and encourage their subordinates. In the beginning of the book, these stories aid in clarifying the authors' many ideas on how to effectively reward others, however in section two, the Seven Essentials section, the stories become too numerous to maintain their effectiveness. I found it difficult to digest the authors' suggestions, mostly because the stories blurred together after a few chapters. The book was also slightly contradictory, and this led to further confusion. In one chapter, the authors state that one does not need psychotherapy in order to enact the caring techniques in the book; however, in the very next chapter they claim that in order to find one's voice, that person must "enter dark, inner territory." The book also speaks of progressing beyond mimicking the techniques of great speakers in order to discover your true style, yet one of the suggestions given in the final list tells the reader to listen to a tape of a children's story and practice reading the story the same way the professional does. While Encouraging the Heart offers some valuable suggestions for rewarding and encouraging others, its overuse of story-telling and contradictory nature nurtures confusion.

8 Awesome
Great book - well organized and written - theory backed up by research with very practical advice. Don't miss this book!

9 An Important Book for Keeping Good Employees
Other books on leadership only tip their hats to the notion of motivating people. "Encouraging The Heart" actually shows you how to do it successfully. This book fleshes out, with stories and examples, the specific ways to let people know that they are truly appreciated and valued.

Some employees quit just to find a better paying job, but it's usually the lack of rewards and appreciation that start employees looking around in the first place. Rewarding and recognizing others is essential to keeping good employees-and Kouzes and Posner show you how to do it. While some leaders are naturals at touching people's hearts, most of us have a lot of learn. This important book is a great guide.

10 Slow to get in to
I haven't finished the book yet, which is rare for me. I find it to be a little too "foo foo" for my tastes, as there's not enough meat. I was looking to be moved, but I didn't get very far.

11 An absolute "must read AND heed" for every leader!
Scores of books have been written that preach The Golden Rule--and corporate America has largely turned a deaf ear. Why? Because while these works correctly hypothesized that encouragement should cause performance increases, they lacked the "punch" of hard data to back up that assertion.

Now comes Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner to the rescue! Case studies involving real people, not management superheroes. Reams of data, extracted superbly to reinforce the theme. Any leader who is satisfied with the performance of his or her organization, and chooses to ignore their message is courting danger on two fronts. First, they are leaving a huge amount of untapped potential for their competition to devour. Second, they will experience organizational decay at some point--and wonder why!

Encouraging the heart is a fast read, and it's easy to assimilate its principles into a leader's daily life. I used their concepts for 24 years in a military environment--they work. Now my clients reap the same benefit.

Jim and Barry--tremendous job!

John Katchka, BlueSky Leadership

12 excellent and actionable
This book will touch your heart and your mind, which is where every leader must learn to work from to truly be a leader-- to "walk the talk" with integrity and to inspire others to take action and to want to follow you.

Encouraging The Heart is one of the five key leadership practices presented in the Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner both leaders and experts in this field. Encouraging the Heart is more than a set of skills. It is a way of being and valuing, a perspective that moves leadership from the left side of the brain to a combination of mind of heart. This encouraging of the heart is also one of the most difficult leadership practices to "walk" and "talk". Kouzes and Posner acknowledge this difficulty and the vulnerability entailed in adopting and enacting this way of leadership at work and at home.

Encouraging the Heart goes beyond a simplistic "just do it" to show us how to REALLY do it-- to encourage the hearts of self and others. This newest book of Kouzes and Posner is powerful because it provides realistic ways to enact and live the principle of leadership. These changes can be a springboard for enhancing effectiveness in their other four practices of leadership-- "Challenging the Process, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, and Modeling the Way." I suggest a standing ovation and shouts of "encore" for Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner so that we may encourage their hearts to give us four more books, one on each of the other leadership practices on which they have enlightened us. Thank you and Bravo!