A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the

way. John C. Maxwell could not have said it any better. It is safe to say that

leadership is a key part to success within a group or an organization, but one

may have a completely different way of getting to the finish line than

someone else. With two books, Kouzes and Posners, Student Leadership

Challenge, and Barbara Mcafees, Full Voice, a better understanding of a path

to success can be created with just a few different tones of voice and key

points on ways to be an exemplary leader. Kouzes and Posner did an amazing

job with clearly defining, in their eyes, what you need to do to become a

leader. There ideas can be defined by the Five Practices of Exemplary

Leadership. Those five practices are as follows: Model the Way, Inspire a

Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage

the Heart. After reading Mcafees book, Full Voice, it became clear that we

can tie each one of her tones, from her Five Elements Framework, to

different parts of Kouzes and Posners Five Practices of Exemplary

Leadership. Mcafees tones are as follows: Earth, Fire, Water, Metal, and Air.

In this paper, I will use each of Kouzes and Posners Five Practices of

Exemplary Leadership and explain how Mcafees Five Elements of

Framework work hand in hand to set a pathway to great success as a leader.

Model the way is based completely around credibility. As stated on

page 11 of Student Leadership Challenge, Titles are granted, but its your

behavior that wins your respect. In a nut shell, you want your peers to like

you so they will listen to what you have to say. This practice is the foundation
to success as a leader because without respect or credibility from your peers,

nothing will ever get accomplished. In order to gain respect and credibility,

you must stay true to your values. As stated in Randazzos lecture on

modeling the way, values can be defined as, enduring beliefs about how

things should be accomplished. In order to communicate your values, you

must lead by example. This practice can be tied directly to Mcafees book,

Full Voice, with the earth and metal tones. The earth tone comes from the

gut and gives off a sense of grounding. While the metal tone comes from the

mask and brings focus and clarity to the room. Both of these tones are key

to modeling the way because you need to make sure you are clear about

your values and that there is someone in the room that will help keep the

group or organization on task with their projects.

To inspire a shared vision, you must always incorporate everyones

opinion because diversity is a key element in finding the best outcome for

your group or organization. If it was all about you and your opinions, you may

not realize that there is actually huge flaws. Unfortunately, getting others to

give feedback and be a part of the bigger picture can be very difficult

because they may be afraid. As stated in Randazzos lecture on inspiring a

shared vision, enlisting others is so hard because they may have fear of

rejection, fear of perception, or just lack of confidence. As the leader, you will

need to demonstrate enthusiasm, have a positive attitude, and help others

see through your eyes. This practice can be linked to Mcafees book, Full

Voice, with the air tone. As stated in Full Voice, on page 128, If you want to
inspire colleagues or customers about a future possibility, bringing a hushed

excitement to your voice can make them lean forward in their seats. The air

voice is exciting, light, full of wind, clouds, stars, and the infinite reaches of

space. This tone lightens the mood and brings a sense of intimacy to the

room.

When challenging the process, leaders need to focus on change.

Innovation is key with this practice because although one idea worked for a

particular thing, it does not mean that you can apply it to another with hopes

of the same result. As stated in Randazzos lecture on challenging the

process, the way you innovate is, to actively seek new ideas from outside

the boundaries of familiar experiences. This practice can come with a lot of

challenges, but the success you can have from it is infinite. Due to the many

potential challenges, this practice works well with the earth tone from

Mcafees book, Full Voice. As stated on page 78 in Mcafees book, Full Voice,

The earth sound can be used to project authority. When you need to

confront a challenge or establish firm boundary, the earth voice literally

lends weight to your words. A sense of authority will be needed in this

practice because someone will need to take charge in order to stay on track

and innovate new ideas that will change your group or organization for the

better.

Enabling others to act is all about empowerment. As a leader, you will

need to give your peers the proper tools, resources, and discretion in order

for them to succeed. Although you may be called a leader, you and your
peers are a team and you are only as strong as your weakest link. That is

why it is key to make sure you enable others to act. A great way to do this is

by creating incentives for those who do step up to the plate. Just like when

modeling the way, you want to create trust within the group or organization

so you should show that you are passionate about whatever everyone is

doing and they will begin to be on board. This practice will work best with the

fire tone from Mcafees book, Full Voice. As stated on page 92 of Full Voice,

Fire is the voice of choice if you want to convey passion Though the fire

voice is generally loud and carries well, its not necessarily shouting. This

sound is as much about intensity as it is volume. The fire tone comes from

the solar plexus and has the power to command attention.

Encouraging the heart is all about setting expectations and recognizing

your peers. Clear expectations provide goals and targets for individuals to

receive. You want to challenge people to work their very best. In order to set

expectations, you must communicate a clear message. Also you must

recognize success as well as failures, but you should never be negative

about the failures. Instead, you should discuss ideas for improvement. This

practice ties together well with the water tone from Mcafees book, Full

Voice. As stated on page 107 in Full Voice, The water voice is ideal for

conveying words of affirmation and praise. The water voice comes from the

heart which is exactly what you would want for this practice. It

communicates caring or compassion and even can cool tensions during a

conflict. When acknowledging good results, make sure it is genuine. Even if it

is just a simple good job or thank you, the tone of your voice plays a

huge factor and water tone from the book, Full Voice, is a great way of

expressing gratitude.

Leadership is not in any way genetic, but instead can be learned by

anyone at any time. Leadership can also not be confined to one single

definition or be taught in any special way. Becoming a great leader is all

about finding the right techniques and tools that work for you and use them

to their highest potential. In this leadership studies course, we learned all

about Kouzes and Posners, Five Exemplary Practices of Leadership, and

Mcafees, Five Elements Framework. These books not only helped me

become a better student leader, but I was even able to tie them together as

one great set of techniques.