Leading From Within: Creating Leaders Among Employees

Introduction

James Kouzes and Barry Posner

It is said that the most successful companies do not recruit leaders; instead, they grow their own, and according to the Deloitte University Press (2014) publication “Leaders at all levels,” if organizations do not prepare their employees for leadership positions, there is a good chance that they will go elsewhere. Employees surveyed in the Deloitte publication cited opportunities for developing their leadership skills as the top motivation for sticking with a company. This suggests that it is crucial to develop employees. Therefore, for organizations to expand sustainably, there needs to be a change in perspective from seeing leadership development among employees as a “nice to have” to a “need to have.” Additionally, it is critical to understand that workplaces are evolving and that this evolution brings with it multigenerational offices, which can result in differences in ideas, visions, and even executions. This is why developing leaders in the workforce is essential because it channels the various ideas and visions into something much more meaningful and advantageous to the organization.

Based on the premise that understanding how to build leadership skills in employees is essential in today’s fast-paced workplace, this chapter will define leadership skills, discuss why developing these skills is essential, and provide guidance on how to develop leadership skills in employees. A review of developing leadership abilities in employees from within and throughout an organization is at the heart of this chapter. By reading this chapter, we hope that readers will understand the conceptualization of leadership from a process lens and appreciate the significance of developing leaders among employees.

Leadership And Leader Defined

Since “leader” and “leadership” are often misused, it is crucial that we start by clarifying what these terms represent. Despite being widely desired, these concepts are challenging to define explicitly (Klingborg et al., 2006). Various academics have defined leadership in a variety of ways. Some people see leadership as a collection of particular qualities or traits. Others believe it to be made up of certain skills and knowledge. Others see leadership to be a process that emphasizes relationships and social interactions. In order to define leadership for the discussion in this chapter, we shall consider it to be a process.

Leadership is defined as “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it. It is equally the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives” (Yukl, 2006, p. 8). Consistent with Yukl’s definition of leadership as a process of influence, Northouse (2010, 2018) described leadership as a process wherein an individual influences a group of others to accomplish a shared purpose. Both definitions imply that leadership is a process, involves influence, takes place in the context of a group, and entails achieving objectives. Therefore, the very definition of leadership as a process shows that it is not a quality or trait that only a select few people are born with. This suggests that a group’s leadership is not limited to just one individual with official position power.