James M. Kouzes

Jim Kouzes has been thinking about leadership ever since he was one of only a dozen Eagle Scouts to be selected to serve in John F. Kennedy's honor guard when Kennedy was inaugurated President of the United States. Kennedy's inaugural call to action -- "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." -- inspired Jim to join the Peace Corps, and he taught school in Turkey for two years. That experience made Jim realize that he wanted a career that offered two things: the chance to teach and the opportunity to serve. It was in his first job back in the U.S. training community action agency managers that Jim found his calling, and he has devoted his life to leadership development ever since.

Jim Kouzes is the coauthor with Barry Posner of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge, with over 3.0 million copies in print. He's a Fellow of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and also served as the Dean's Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Jim and Barry have coauthored many bestselling leadership books including A Leader's Legacy, Encouraging the Heart, The Truth About Leadership, and Credibility. They are also the developers of The Leadership Practices Inventory—the bestselling off-the-shelf leadership assessment in the world. Their books are extensively researched-based, and over 500 doctoral dissertations and academic studies have been based on their original work.

Not only is Jim a highly regarded leadership scholar, The Wall Street Journal cited Jim as one of the twelve best executive educators in the U.S. He is the 2010 recipient of the Thought Leadership Award from the Instructional Systems Association, listed as one of HR Magazine’s Most Influential International Thinkers, named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior by Trust Across America, and ranked by Leadership Excellence magazine as one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders. Jim was presented with the Golden Gavel, the highest honor awarded by Toastmasters International, and he and Barry are also the recipients of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award, presented in recognition of their extensive body of work and the significant impact they have had on learning and performance in the workplace.