Leadership Practices Inventory: Understanding The Model And Its Results

The Leadership Practices Inventory is a leadership model designed by James M.Kouzes and Barry S. Posner. Theory states that leadership is not a quality acquired from birth or transmitted through DNA information. Leadership is independent of racial, regional, religious, or ethic boundaries. There is no relation of leadership with having a power and a high status. Anyone who has the inherent aptitudes and set of skills to inspire and mentor others towards a common objective qualifies as a leader.

The LPI model can be classified into five main categories bed on the nature of qualities asked for and the type of responses they might fetch. They are:

• Model the way
• Inspire a collective vision
• Challenge the process
• Enable others to act
• Encourage the Heart (Kouzes and Posner 2012).

I took the LPI test a few days ago in order to find out where I stand in this competitive world where it is quite tough to become a true leader. I wanted to know what leadership skills I already possess and what skills I can further work upon to grow into an effective leader. My personal scores and reflections according to the LPI criteria are as follows.  

As far as leading my subordinates by example is concerned, I am moderately confident. However, as a leader, I ascertain it that I receive the same performance and dedication from the employees, while maintaining the quality of work. I try my best not t make promises I cannot keep. When I make a commitment to my colleagues, I make sure to fulfil it to the best of my abilities. I am also quite open to criticism and feedback, be it positive or negative. I make it a point to ask other employees what effect my actions are taking on their work (Kapp 2012). If a change is required to be made, I do it as far as the situation permits. I conduct team meetings now and then, to correlate the company’s aims to the general team attitude. I believe that leadership is a quality that involves not only power over others, but also a sense of responsibility. A leader needs to understand skills and feelings of his workers and set his targets and strategies accordingly (Kouzes and Posner 2017). Hence, I am fairly confident on my innate leadership philosophy.

I do not converse a lot about upcoming procedures for work. I do not particularly devote a lot of time to researching magazines, blogs, publications, and the web for new trends and practices of work. Knowing and communicating futuristic processes and equipments is essential to become a successful leader (Miner 2015). I definitely need improvement in this field. Visualizing the future is something I do now and then but not very often. As an able leader, I need to set aspiring targets for myself and my subordinates as well. This could help motivate the employees to work for a better future, with tangible results and rewards (Arbak and Villeval 2013). This is an area I might improve upon also encouraging my employees to share their own respective dreams about the picture. Martin Luther King Jr. motivated millions with his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, whereby he taught the Black American to fight for his rights (Garrow 2015). Quite often, I try to initiate my subordinates into the organisation’s future aims by helping them identify with the bigger picture of the company’s progress. I ask the employees individually their own aims for the future and how it corresponds with the company’s targets.

Structuring a Path

As a leader, it is a requisite to constantly improve and enhance my personal set of skills and the way I work. I make it a point to ask my team-members to devise innovative and novel methods of performing tasks. I take a single project as reference and ask all the members to give their subjective opinions on the solution (Braun et al. 2013). I conduct team discussions as to why a path of operations would be suitable and why another would not. To that effect, I look for solutions outside the company’s confines, consulting other leaders, employees, and often making foeld trips to similar institutions to adopt innovative techniques. Many a time, planning and execution don’t go hand in hand, and when a project fails, I try to extract the maximum lessons to follow for the future. A true leader never loses- he wins or he learns (Hirak et al. 2012). Pragmatism is one of my strengths and I always set realistic targets which can be acquired with the resources at our disposal. However, this does not stop me from taking calculated risks for better results.

Quite often, I interact with random team-members and ask them to share their own opinions about the way we work. I entertain different points of view and try to extract the best out of each to form a collective whole. All employees are treated with respect and I try to address employees by their first names (Latham 2014). However, I give subordinates moderate amount of freedom to put such myriad opinions into practice, as too much freedom tends to create confusion and disarray at times. I cannot improve drastically in this field as it is subject to varying aptitudes and skills.

I make it a point to always congratulate a member for a good job by verbal chats, text messages, e-mails etc. I see to it that everyone is aware of my trust in their abilities and this gives their confidence a boost (Men 2014). I always try to devise innovative ways to accolade successful employees like token gifts, incentives, fun activities etc. I openly praise code-upholders and star performers, so that they act as examples for others to follow, although I can improve in this area (Jones 2012). After a successful project, I don’t always stand on ceremony, but share a quick ‘congrats’ with each team-member, reminding him how valuable he is. Although I am a fairly practical leader, I need to work on these skills a bit more in order to make my team-members feel included in the organisation’s plans.

The plan covers a time period from 01/08/2017 to 15/09/2017.

Leadership Practices- 1) Inspire a Shared Vision 2) Model the Way

Leadership Behaviours- 1) Discussing future trends about our work. 2) Describing a spellbinding vision of the future.

SMART Goal in Focus:

• Specific- It is always sensible to lead by example and have a good foresight of what can be achieved.
• Measurable-I should find that my subordinates are inspired at the prospect of a better future, which they are discussing.
• Achievable-Since no tangible resources required, it is attainable.
• Realistic- The organisation encourages such innate development of leaders.
• Time-specific– Time is not a hurdle in such a goal of reassessing my style of work.

Leadership Strategy	Action Steps	Timeline	Support
Experience: I intend to discuss futuristic operations to enhance our functioning.	· Look up blog sites and video sites for inspiring ideas to innovate our working process (Heizer 2016). · Keep in touch constantly with members of the technology department, inquiring them about new equipments and gadgets available in the market. · Initiate discussions with another team member and take his or her opinion as to how to implement new technology and processes into our operations.	August 1 to August 25.	· Mostly self-help. · Mr. Dent and Todd from the Technical Support Team. · Team-members.
Example: I want to act as an example for the employees, so that they know what is expected of them as well.	· Take over a task from subordinates, and solve it in my way, the way I want others to follow and operate. · Start blogs and chat threads, where workers can get familiar with what is required (Venters, Green and Lopez 2012).	August 15 to September 15.	Self-help. Special focus on new employees.
Education: I wish to present an enthralling image of what we can achieve in the future as a team, in order to motivate the members and also myself.	· Jot down several points on why I am looking forward to the future, and try to make them interesting for others. · Imagine enticing visions of the future for myself. This might be a long vacation at an exotic tourist getaway; a situation where both time and money are available in plenty. · Describe it to my team members in such a way that they too, are inspired at the prospect of a bright future. · Encourage the employees to share their own respective visions of future success. · However, see to it that we focus on the job at hand instead of dwelling too much in the future.	August 26 to September 15.	All team-members.

The plan covers a time period from 01/09/2017 to 15/10/2017

Leadership Practices: 1) Enabling team members to act; 2) Challenging existing processes

Leadership Behaviours: 1) Providing more choices to employees about how they work;

2) Enhancing my ability to experiment and take risks.

SMART Goal in Focus:

• Specific- The goals quite clearly state that I wish to facilitate the working of team members; and to learn to take calculated risks at work.
• Measurable-I will know that my objective is accomplished when my team members start innovating their working styles on their own in a positive way; and when I myself can assess a situation and know which risk to take and which one not to.
• Achievable-These goals are certainly achievable as with a little time and practice, the employees will get more efficient, and stop depending on me for orders all the time.
• Realistic-The target is quite practical, since situational emergencies are exactly the reason why these goals have been set. As a leader I should be knowing how to deal with failures.
• Time-specific- These goals are a bit more time consuming than the previous ones. However they will not affect my other commitments.

Leadership Strategy	Action Steps	Timeline	Support
Experience: I intend to learn how to take measured risks at work, knowing that there are chances of failing.	· Indulge in frequent conversations with the management on how the taking of risks will benefit the organisation (Kreiser 2013). · Dare to step out of my comfort zone and take the stakes a notch higher. · Inform my team-members of the risks I take. · Above all, be calculative about the risk, such that it does not put the organisation in jeopardy (Renz 2016).	16/09/2017 to 15/10/2017	Operation Head Mr. Saunders; Success Manager Mrs. Porter; team-members.
Example: I want to give employees more independence and choices in determining their own style of work.	· Identify the respective skill-sets of each member. · Now I can identify who are the ones able to make sensible decisions. · Make my expectations lucid in the beginning to avoid further confusion. · Assign outcome focused targets to team-members so that they can start working in their respective styles, yet cognizant of the objective.	1/09/2017 to 15/10/2017.	Self-help; team members (especially ones with over 2yrs experience).
Education: I want to see to it that employees have ample chance of being promoted and uplifted through their jobs.	· Find out the individual aptitudes of each member and make out what kind of higher post he is capable of handling. · Give them skill-specific tasks to make sure their work-growth. · Assess each employee’s development to the criteria needed for a higher post or opportunity (Neubert, Wu and Roberts 2013). · Create blog posts and chat threads whereby each employee can share what skill he is developing and also learn from others.	15/09/2017 to 15/10/2017.	Self-assessment; All team members.

References:

Arbak, E. and Villeval, M.C., 2013. Voluntary leadership: motivation and influence. Social Choice and Welfare, pp.1-28.

Braun, S., Peus, C., Weisweiler, S. and Frey, D., 2013. Transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), pp.270-283.

Garrow, D.J., 2015. Bearing the cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the southern Christian leadership conference. Open Road Media.

Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.

Hirak, R., Peng, A.C., Carmeli, A. and Schaubroeck, J.M., 2012. Linking leader inclusiveness to work unit performance: The importance of psychological safety and learning from failures. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(1), pp.107-117.

Jones, D., 2012. Does servant leadership lead to greater customer focus and employee satisfaction. Business Studies Journal, 4(2), pp.21-35.

Kapp, E.A., 2012. The influence of supervisor leadership practices and perceived group safety climate on employee safety performance. Safety science, 50(4), pp.1119-1124.

Kouzes, J.M. and Posner, B.Z., 2012. LPI: Leadership Practices Inventory: Development Planner (Vol. 270). John Wiley & Sons.

Kouzes, J.M. and Posner, B.Z., 2017. A coach’s guide to developing exemplary leaders: Making the most of the leadership challenge and the leadership practices inventory (LPI). John Wiley & Sons.

Kreiser, P.M., Marino, L.D., Kuratko, D.F. and Weaver, K.M., 2013. Disaggregating entrepreneurial orientation: the non-linear impact of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking on SME performance. Small Business Economics, 40(2), pp.273-291.

Latham, J.R., 2014. Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a framework for future research. Quality Management Journal, 21 (1), 5.

Men, L.R., 2014. Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), pp.264-284.

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Neubert, M.J., Wu, C. and Roberts, J.A., 2013. The influence of ethical leadership and regulatory focus on employee outcomes. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(2), pp.269-296.

Renz, D.O., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John Wiley & Sons.

Venters, J., Green, M. and Lopez, D., 2012. Social media: A leadership challenge. Business Studies Journal, 4(1), pp.85-94.