Leadership Challenge

Discover the Research That Illuminates the Leader Within Everyone

Explore the collected body of
research behind the brand.

Meet the Authors Behind The Leadership Challenge

Between 1981 and 1982, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner began exploring the question, “What do leaders do while operating at their personal best?” Asking this question led to a wave of groundbreaking research along with Jim and Barry’s first leadership workshop in 1984. The publication of their book, The Leadership Challenge, followed next in 1987. A year later, Jim and Barry launched the first edition of the LPI®: Leadership Practices Inventory® assessment.

Since then, Jim and Barry have changed the way organizations and individuals discuss and approach leadership. Through 5 million collected surveys and hundreds of studies, Jim and Barry proved that leadership is everyone’s business—it’s a set of skills and behaviors that everyone can teach, learn, and practice. To discover the logic, data, and studies behind The Leadership Challenge, explore the research below.


About The Authors


Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are coauthors of the award-winning, best-selling book The Leadership Challenge. Now in its seventh edition, The Leadership Challenge has sold nearly three million copies worldwide. For over forty years, Jim and Barry have collaborated and co-authored more than a dozen other award-winning leadership books.  Together they developed the widely used and highly acclaimed Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) for assessing leadership behavior. Among the honors and awards that Jim and Barry have received are the Association for Talent and Development’s (ATD) highest award for their Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance and named by HR Magazine as among the Most Influential International Thinkers.

The Leadership Challenge

Jim Kouzes

Jim Kouzes, Fellow at the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University Read More

The Leadership Challenge

Barry Posner

Barry Posner currently serves as the Michael J. Accolti,
S.J., Chair and Professor of Leadership for the Leavey
School of Business Read More


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  • Recent Papers

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