What if you could access useful tips and tools to develop your leadership skills merely by pulling out your Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch? James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, authors of the perennial bestseller The Leadership Challenge, together with their publisher Pfeiffer, have created a mobile app called the Leadership Challenge Mobile Leader Tool, available for your Apple device.

The app allows you to transform a few spare minutes of your time into a powerful mini-session on leadership development—tailored to your personal needs and goals. Features include a template for giving and receiving feedback on leadership skills; an overview of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership; informative case studies; brief videos of author interviews; and a news feed for sharing trending leadership practices and advice, as well as products, events, and services of interest.

Perhaps the tool's most impressive components are its "practice routines," which are specific activities you can undertake to become a more effective leader today. Each comes with a prompt to place the activity on your calendar, email yourself a reminder, or record any ideas you may have about it. Simply browsing this activity list will provide inspiration for jump-starting your leadership efforts, but if you use nothing else, take advantage of the "request feedback" tool—with a few clicks, you can send a survey to fetch telling feedback on your skills.

Clear, relevant, and ingeniously simple, this app can lend focus and creativity to your efforts to become a more valuable leader.