Authors: James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, PhD
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley – Higher Education (5 booklets)
Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar
This set of three booklets for reading and study along with two others for testing and review purposes – one for the self and the other for the observer – and the SLPI scoring CD-ROM – is known collectively as Student Leadership Practices Inventory.
The three main booklets consist of a Facilitator’s Guide, a Student Workbook, and a third one entitled The Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership.
What exactly is leadership and why is leadership, particularly student leadership, so important in today’s world?
The authors assert that leadership is not something “mystical” or “ethereal” but a set of observable and learnable practices. They also point out that those who want to lead others can, with practice and feedback, improve their abilities to do so.
Most likely, young people taking a leadership course for the first time already have held leadership roles in their childhood and youth. They may have started a club, led a sports team, or gotten elected as president of a school-based organization.
The Facilitators Guide has been written to help teachers and students develop and carry out a leadership program based on the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). Using it with the LPI Student Workbook enables one to:
- Present a valid, understandable, and practical model of leadership for students
- Provide reliable and useful feedback to students on their current use of a specific set of leadership behaviors
- Conduct a workshop (from one hour to half a day or a full day) on leadership
- Integrate the Student LPI into other leadership development programs
The descriptions and purposes of the components of this student leadership training program are the following:
The SLPI-Self is the student leader version of the thirty-item questionnaire for self-assessment of frequency of use of the Five Practices.
The SLPI-Observer is the observer version of the thirty-item questionnaire for the constituent’s assessment of a student leader’s frequency of the use of the Five Practices.
The SLPI Scoring Software CD-ROM enables the facilitator to enter data from the questionnaires and generate individual and group reports.
The SLPI Feedback Report summarizes data from the two questionnaires by practice, behaviors, and percentile ranking.
The SLPI Facilitator’s Guide includes information about the development of the SLPI, descriptions of The Five Practices, an explanation of the SLPI Feedback Report, instructor scripts, and more.
The SLPI Student Workbook is a step-by-step workbook for students’ use in the SLPI workshop.
The Student Leadership Planner is a comprehensive workbook that includes tips on best learning practices, development ideas for each of The Five Practices, along with progress recording and follow-up action planning guides.
The Five Practices article is a monograph that presents a concise overview of The Five Practices, case examples and overall thoughts on leadership.
This set of booklets is a very well-planned and organized program designed to develop student leaders. Our congratulation to the authors.
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner are award-winning authors of the best-selling book The Leadership Challenge. They have also co-authored a number of other books on leadership, including Credibility: How Leaders Gain It and Lose It, Why People Demand It and The Academic Administrator’s Guide to Exemplary Leadership.
