All too often, simple acts of human kindness are often overlooked and under utilized by people in leadership roles. Advising mutual respect and recognition of accomplishments, Encouraging the Heart shows us how true leaders encourage and motivate those they work with by helping them find their voice and making them feel like heroes. Recognized experts in the field of leadership, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner show us that, through love, leaders can encourage, and indeed allow those around them to be their very best. Both practical and inspirational, Encouraging the Heart gives readers a thoughtful approach to motivating individuals within an organizational structure.
Read Chapter 3 or Chapter 12, or see The Encouragement Index.
Leadership authorities James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner say employees perform best when their contributions are genuinely appreciated. Unfortunately, the two contend, most executives have not mastered the decidedly soft-management skill of "encouragement" that fosters such behavior. In Encouraging the Heart, they examine how this type of compassionate supervision is becoming a critical part of successful management today, and through example and suggestion they describe how readers can establish the process in their own businesses.
This is not a book about glad-handing and backslapping, gold stars, and payoffs. It's about the importance of linking rewards and appreciation to standards of excellence. It's about why encouragement is absolutely essential to sustaining people's commitment to organizations and outcomes. It's about the hard work it takes to get extraordinary things done in organizations, and it's about ways to enhance your own ability in--and comfort with--recognizing and celebrating the achievements of others.
The book's opening section introduces their concept of the caring leader; the second outlines their "seven essential principles" for encouraging workers; the third explains how the process can be personalized and describes 150 additional suggestions for implementing it. --Howard Rothman

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Encouraging the Heart:

This is a great book if you are in a leadership role now, or if you aspire to be in one in the future.
It affirms my beliefs about trusting others and recognizing others for their accomplishments.
A quick read, and an excellent reference.

Encouraging the Heart: A Leader's Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others:

This book is highly recommended. We used it at our church for a leadership training class. Everyone who read it found it to be particularly helpful and relevant. It has some challenging points and has some great ideas.

A Key Relational Leadership Process:

Continuing their `Leadership is a Relationship' philosophy, best-selling authors, (The Leadership Challenge and Credibility), Kouzes & Posner focus this book on the 5th of their five essential practices for exemplary leadership - Encourage the Heart. After demonstrating that even the best performers are `starved for recognition' and will respond positively to a heart-felt "thank you", the authors provide descriptions and examples of the seven essential components of the Encouraging the Heart practice,... more info

Book for Senior Vice President: