Barry Posner

Barry Zane Posner (born March 11, 1949) is the Accolti Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Early life and education

Posner received a B.A. degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1970, a M.A. from The Ohio State University in Public Administration in 1972, and a Ph.D in Organizational Behavior and Administrative Theory from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1976. His doctoral thesis was "Characteristics of individuals' control in organizations"

Career

Posner is the Accolti Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. He has spoken about leadership at the University of St. Thomas. He spent 6 months as visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His work has been featured in The Washington Post. His research includes exploring positive leadership traits that lead to successful leaders. He also has studied the key components of successful business projects.

The Leadership Challenge

Posner and James M. Kouzes started developing the idea for The Leadership Challenge when they were planned to present about leadership at a two-day conference. Academics at Santa Clara University, Kouzes and Posner were set to speak after Tom Peters, who was presenting about successful companies. Kouzes and Posner decided to focus on individual leadership skills. The name for the book came from the concept of the challenges that take place to "make extraordinary things happen," according to Kouzes in 2012. The Leadership Challenge uses case studies to examine "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership," as researched and developed by Kouzes and Posner. Their first surveys for the five practices started in 1983, by asking people "What do you do as a leader when you're performing at your personal best?" Kouzes and Posner identified five common concepts in their survey, hence the five practices. The "Five Practices" are: "Model the Way," "Inspire a Shared Vision," "Challenge the Process," "Enable Others to Act," and "Encourage the Heart".