An exclusive interview with James M. Kouzes, Co-Author of Bestseller The Leadership Challenge

From the moment he joined The Boy Scouts, James M. Kouzes (more affectionately known as Jim) had been exposed to the nuts and bolts of being and becoming a great leader. Co-author of the bestselling book The Leadership Challenge^®, Jim has since devoted much of his life to helping people turn values into actions and visions into realities.One of Jim’s many core principles about leadership is, unsurprisingly, practice, practice, practice.

Quoting Anders Ericsson, a professor from Florida State university, he comments, “Living in a cave does not make you a geologist”. Indeed, he understands that spending years in a job says nothing about how good you are at it.Recently, I had a chance to have a chat with Jim about how his life has been influenced by the leaders around him, and more importantly, the leader within him.

Halogen360 (H360): You define leadership as something learnable. Would you call yourself a natural leader?
Jim Kouzes (JK): As you know, our research clearly shows that leadership is not a gene. Whatever leadership skills I have, or others have, are developed through experience. Leaders don’t become great without engaging in deliberate practice. I had the good fortune early in my life to be exposed to role models at home — my parents were both leaders in their own domains. My mother loved to give speeches, so she got me involved in public speaking at school. I was in organised sports and in our high school orchestra. I also acted in our school plays.

All these experiences nurtured leadership skills in one way or another.  I don’t believe in the “great person”—man or woman—theory of leadership. The notion that leadership is reserved for a few charismatic men and women is just plain wrong. There’s just no evidence to support it. The  truth  is, leadership  is  an  identifiable  set  of  skills and abilities that are available to anyone. Leadership is broadly distributed in the population, and it’s accessible to all who will dedicate themselves to learning.

“All these experiences nurtured leadership skills in one way or another.  I don’t believe in the “great person”—man or woman—theory of leadership. The notion that leadership is reserved for a few charismatic men and women is just plain wrong… Leadership is broadly distributed in the population, and it’s accessible to all who will dedicate themselves to learning.” – Jim Kouzes

H360: What were your ambitions in your teenage years?
JK: I was a pretty typical teen. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember dreaming about being a professional athlete, architect, and probably a fireman. But there was one transformational event in my young life that changed everything: I was selected to serve in the honour guard at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. That came about because I was one of the youngest Eagle Scouts in the U.S. at the time. I vividly remember standing there in the freezing cold while President Kennedy and the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, stood 10 feet or so above me. During his speech, he said: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.”

I can still hear those words ringing in my ears 50 years later, and they influenced a lot of choices I made from that moment on. For example, when i graduated high school and went off to college, I majored in political science with the plan that I would become a Foreign Service Officer. After university, I joined the Peace Corps and served for two years in Turkey.

When I returned to the States, I got a job working for the Community Action Programme Training institute, an organisation that provided leadership and management development experiences for the people serving the poorest communities in the country. And while I never did join the Foreign Service, I chose a path that led me serendipitously to where I am today. I have been involved in developing others’ capacities, in one way or another, for my entire adult life, and I couldn’t feel more blessed.

H360: If there was one piece of advice you want to share with our youth, what would it be?
JK: I would say: Everything you will ever do as a leader is based on one audacious assumption. It’s the assumption that you matter. Before you can lead others you have to believe that you can have a positive impact on others. you have to believe that what you do counts for something. If you don’t, you won’t even try. Leadership begins with you.

I’d also advise young people that there are seasoned leaders out there who can help them.Every world-class athlete, for example, has a coach. Every world-class business leader should also have a coach who can give them the unvarnished truth about their strengths and weaknesses, and wise advice on what it’ll take to become a truly exceptional leader. The truth is you can’t do it alone. No leader ever got anything extraordinary done without the talent and support of others. You need others and they need you. You have to be sensitive to the needs of others. You have to listen, ask questions, develop others, provide support, and ask for help.

H360: If there was one thing you don’t ever want to change about the youth today, what would it be?
JK: It’s a little presumptuous of me at 66 years old to tell young people how they ought or ought not to change. They know themselves and their environment much better than I do.

The first thing I would say to them is “thank you”. Thank you for your innovativeness and creativity. Thank you for being bold and initiating change around the globe. Thank you for reminding us that the legacy we leave is someone else’s future, and that we have to remember every day that our a