James Kouzes

Jim Kouzes is the coauthor with Barry Posner of the award-winning and bestselling book, The Leadership Challenge, with over one million copies sold. He’s also an executive fellow in the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, as well as the chairman emeritus of the Tom Peters Company, a professional services firm that specializes in leadership development.

The third edition of The Leadership Challenge, released in the fall of 2002, debuted as number 4 on the BusinessWeek bestseller list, the only 3rd edition of any book ever to make that list. The Leadership Challenge, available in eleven languages, has been a selection of the Macmillan Executive Book Club and the Fortune Book Club. It’s the winner of the 1989 James A. Hamilton Hospital Administrators’ Book, the 1995-96 Critics’ Choice Award, and was a BusinessWeek bestseller in 2001 and 2002.

Jim and Barry have also coauthored Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, which was chosen by Industry Week as one of the ten best management books of 1993. Their other books include, Encouraging the Heart (1999, 2003) and The Leadership Challenge Workbook (1999, 2003), and The Leadership Challenge Journal (2003). Based on solid research involving over 70,000 surveys, 1,000 written case studies, and 100 in-depth interviews, these books describe the leadership principles and practices that generate high performance in individuals and organizations.

Jim and Barry developed the widely used and highly acclaimed Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), a 360 question questionnaire assessing leadership behavior (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 1988, 1997, 2003). The LPI has been administered to over 250,000 individuals, and over one million observers have provided feedback using the LPI. Over 175 doctoral dissertations and academic research projects have been based on their work.

The International Management Council (IMC) honored Jim and Barry as the 2001 recipients of the prestigious Wilbur M. McFeely Award. Past McFeely Award recipients include: Peter Drucker, Lee Iacocca, Tom Peters, Ken Blanchard, Norman Vincent Peale, Francis Hesselbein, Stephen Covey, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Jim is featured as one of workplace experts in What Works at Work: Lessons from the Masters by George Dixon (1988) and in Learning Journeys: Top Management Experts Share Hard-Earned Lessons on Becoming Great Mentors and Leaders edited by Marshall Goldsmith, Beverly Kaye and Ken Shelton (2000).

Not only is Jim a highly regarded leadership scholar and experienced executive, The Wall Street Journal has cited Jim as one of the twelve best executive educators in the U.S. A popular speaker, Jim shares lessons learned about leadership from over 20 years of original research. He leaves his audiences inspired with practical leadership tools and tips to apply at work, at home, and in their communities. His clients have included: Accenture, Applied Materials, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Charles Schwab, Cisco Systems, Consumers Energy, Dell Computer, Deloitte Touche, Egon Zehnder International, Federal Express, Honeywell, Johnson & Johnson, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Levi Strauss & Co., 3M, Motorola, Roche Bioscience, Siemens, State of New York, Sun Microsystems, Thomson Corporation, and Toyota.

Jim directed the Executive Development Center at Santa Clara University from 1981 through 1987. Under his leadership the EDC was awarded two gold medals from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He also founded the Joint Center for Human Services Development at San Jose State University, which he managed from 1972 until 1980. Jim’s commitment to service was nurtured during his years growing up in the Washington, D.C. area. His lifelong career in education began in 1967-1969 when he served for two years in the Peace Corps. Jim believes it was on January 20, 1961 when he was first inspired to dedicate himself to leadership. That was the day he was one of only a dozen Eagle Scouts who served in John F. Kennedy’s Honor Guard at the Presidential Inauguration.