Examining The Five Practices Of Exemplary Leadership® Model Use by District Managers Responsible for Sales

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to measure the extent leaders responsible for sales management use Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.

METHODOLOGY
The population of this study was staffing agency district managers (N=134) responsible for sales and sales management working in the United States, of which 53 (40% response rate), located in 21 states, participated by completing the Leadership Practices Inventory.

KEY FINDINGS
Comparisons with the Kouzes Posner normative database, as the 70th percentile (high), indicated that sales managers did not reach this level for any of the five leadership practices. The highest average score was for Enable, followed by Encourage and Model, then Inspire, and then Challenge. Approximately 47 percent responded at or above the 70th percentile for Model and Encourage, 42 percent for Inspire, 38 percent for Enable, and 32 percent for Challenge.

The author concludes:

This research helps district managers understand what behaviors are not currently being used effectively at the high level of efficiency. As a result of this investigation and identification of behaviors not used at the high 70th percentile level, professional development can be created to reduce turnover in sales employees (p. 57).

This study will help district managers responsible for sales focus professional development on the practices shown to be used the least frequently. Leadership practices are a crucial element in reducing turnover and specifically Kouzes and Posner’s Exemplary Leadership Model is linked to several factors that reduce turnover. District managers responsible for sales should be trained to use the leadership practices effectively to increase job satisfaction and organizational commitment in salespeople and in turn, reduce turnover (p. 61).