Leadership Training

Welcome to Leadership Expert’s page on Leadership Training.

What is leadership training about? Is leadership training effective? If my company isn’t presently investing in any leadership training for me – what can I do about it? These will be the questions I will be investigating, evaluating and more importantly – solving for you.

Whether you are a top performing CEO or someone who is considering (or being considered) for their first junior management or supervisory role; providing you with the right tools to do the job effectively is essential. After all, you wouldn’t want someone who knows nothing, or very little about plumbing to come and install a new bathroom, complete with energy efficient boiler, power shower, expensive tiles etc into your home would you? Unfortunately, however, this is exactly what most organisations do. They take a good employee and then throw them into the deep end of management under the auspices of ‘career development’.

Pro-active, innovative and forward thinking organisations do have whole suites of tried and tested, highly effective management induction and learning programmes. Over the course of the next few months I will be researching and interviewing some of these organisations HR Directors and Staff Development managers to see exactly what they do and how they do it. If you currently work somewhere you feel is amazing at leadership training and support I would love to hear from you.

Many of you are telling me that, sadly, you were either thrown in at the deep end, or that you feel your training has been inadequate. The fact is that most of the greatest leaders I have ever come across embarked on a relentless drive for their own self-development, regardless of what their companies offered. It is in this respect that I also plan to investigate the most cost effective and life changing learning programmes that are available to you.

I am currently researching leadership training courses in the following subjects:

• Transformational leadership
• Situational leadership
• Global leadership
• Leadership verses management
• The accomplished executive
• Leadership training for new managers

I will be investigating up to 10 different leadership training companies to see what they provide and how effective their training has been. The list is not exhaustive so let me know what king of leadership training you currently need and I will guide you accordingly. Just so you know, most good leadership courses cost up to £3,000.

One leadership course I would definitely recommend you should take a look at is called Best Year Yet®. What is so good about this programme is that it is goal orientated and behavioral. It is also value based and blended with on-line tracking, audio programmes, webinars, and for those who want it, one-to-one coaching.  It is also one of the cheapest and yet most effective (life changing) programmes I have ever come across. To take a closer look – see my full review.

One of the most effective ways to learn to become a leader is through coaching. Coaching can add so much more value compared to attending a course, because it is more personal, in-depth and can unlock peoples hidden potential in amazing ways.

There is currently an explosion in leadership coaching, because people want to be able to find their own path to success, independently to what their company offers them, or at least, with the ability to discuss real issues with someone from outside the company. This can have major benefits for both the individual and the organisation. External coaches are being accepted in greater numbers into organisations and as part of peoples continuing professional development planning.

For details of the three different types of coaching programme available directly through Leadership-expert™ – click here.

From visiting organisations, I’ve found that the happiest employees and managers regularly invest in themselves and their personal leadership training. People have often sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and success in leadership. These days, many e-courses tend to be rather disappointing, and although we can all learn from material which is available on-line, finding the right learning programme for you can be a real challenge.

So, if you are looking for access to straight-forward, useful leadership training materials, top tips and tools to help you to become a more effective leader in your organisation, join our community and I will let you know every week when I have been able to update the website with some incredibly useful, cutting-edge leadership thinking and techniques – all for free.

Bespoke Leadership Training:

If you have specific leadership and management training needs and don’t want to spend hours trawling the internet, employ Leadership-Expert™ to find the right solution for you.

If you are looking for very specific leadership training which doesn’t fall into any of the above categories, email me at simon@simonteague.com and I will compile an initial assessment of your development needs and learning style, undertake the appropriate research and recommend the most relevant leadership training solution to meet your and your organisations needs. The cost of this service is minimal compared to the overall training outlay and could save you £thousands if you attend a programme that is ultimately not right for you.

Dr Randy Pausch’s Inspiring ‘Last Lecture’

Below, you’ll find one of the most inspirational videos ever to come out of Youtube. Randy Pausch, a respected professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, had only 2-6 months left to live at the time of giving his now famous ‘last lecture’. Watch the whole thing below!

Improve Team Morale With These 5 Easy Methods

Team morale is a massively important element of motivation and is also a key driver of productivity. If you can manage the morale of your team effectively, you can help them produce results in a way that will be as fulfilling for them as it is for you. Different team members with different personalities in different roles will respond to some morale-boosting tips better than others, so please don’t use this guide as a checklist. Be selective, and tailor your strategy to which you think your subordinate or team members would love.

1. Keep employees informed to tackle ‘them and us’ attitude

The retail industry (among many others) suffer from a ‘them and us’ culture, where employees increasingly see management as standing against them. This culture explains the high absenteeism, shocking employee turnover and extreme demoralisation that some retail giants (See: Walmart) suffer from. A communication defficiency between the organisational layers is the main cause of this problem. Elect to be up-front with employees, discussing problems and storms on the horizon as they’re discovered, and not after decisions have been made.

2. Explain the value and benefit to the business they’re creating

A workers morale is derived from the value they believe they’re creating. In this way, a director of a multinational corporation will have a serious morale surplus! However, a cashier at a fast food chain may not feel as well-endowed. Naturally, these grass-root positions in organisations still create plenty of value for the company though, and it pays to remind their occupants of this fact. A manager could, for example  let a cashier see how many sales they’ve put through the till that week. It will likely be an impressive figure reaching into four digits for a full-time employee, and may let them impress themselves!

3. Deliver proper training

When your employees are being trained, are they simply thrown in front of a TV and told to sit through a dull and dated video? Or do they get to be coached one-on-one by a consultant, and put through a personalised and well-tailored training programme? A thorough and professional training scheme will fill employees with a sense of empowerment and self-respect. The thought that a company is investing time and expenses into developing their skills will remarkably improve their morale. For existing employees, consider a 2-day training excursion to refresh competencies and update their knowledge with recent market/company changes.

Training schemes are often out of the control of operational manager, and are ‘slotted into’ the induction programme by senior HR managers. However, if you’re in a small company, you may have sizeable influence over the structure of these training programmes. When it comes to budgets and spending, hotel & travel costs will quickly become astronomical if you choose a distant venue. My advice is to hire a local venue that will take employees out of their workplace, but will not require overnight accomodation. This is the key to receive value for money on training programmes, and will allow you to spend more on top quality talent to train your staff!

4. Consider worker’s outside lives by being flexible

Employees flex their lifestyles to fit their jobs with mixed success. Some people, especially young, single professionals manage to get by fine. However those with many responsibilities, including looking after family simply loose a grip on a sensible balance between fun & meaningful activities, and their career. Employ these ‘common sense’ policies into effect today, to create a positive change:

• Allow reasonable personal calls to be made during working hours.
• Use your discretion in allowing employees to leave earlier or arrive later than normal, with the understanding that the hours will be made up later.
• Put money torwards a medical treatment for a parent’s sick child.

5. Treats and team building exercises

I’d describe treats and team building days as ‘expensive and reliable’. Whether you see them as reliable or not, will depend on what you expect to get from them. If you expect a white-water-rafting day to cohesively give your organisation a firm sense of direction, then you probably need to take your head out of the glossy brochure. If however, you would like to encourage positive behaviour you’ve seen recently, and allow a disjointed, new team a little room to gel as a productive unit, then you could be making a wise investment.

6. Suggestion schemes (for large companies with many employees per manager/shop)

The notion that suggestion boxes are somewhat impersonal is a catastrophic understatement. Suggestion boxes are completely impersonal, and don’t directly help the relationship between management and employees. The cloak of anonymity can encourage people to be reckless, hurtful and careless with what they say.

Question: Why did these old-fashioned boxes make it on my list?

Answer: Because they actually work.

Indeed, despite what I’ve said; suggestion boxes do their job rather well. They’re not there to let employees vent anger, or for managers to gleefully ignore. They’re there to take a poll of employee sentiment, feelings, and pick up some of their ideas. I want you to think about the revolutionary (pun intended) element of the 360 feedback exercise. The key element is that you also get feedback from those beneath you, and a suggestion box is a simple way to do this that has been around a long time before such buzz words were ever printed. You need to be disciplined to encourage the use of a suggestion box. You must not let positive comments fill your ego, nor let the angry or hateful words trash your whole strategy. Gather plenty of responses about the exact topic in question, (be sure to ask for constructive ideas alongside any comments) and sit down in a professional fashion and see what you can incorporate into the working environment.

Expert™ Tip: Don’t look up for support

The green flag from a board of directors to go crazy with employee entertainment and training budgets is an recurring fantasy, but don’t hope for it. Don’t resent those ‘fat cats’ for not even supporting a practical, cheap and (in your opinion) worthwhile training project. Instead, become a manager that others will respect. In the face of an old fashioned and top-heavy corporate culture, make your own success in building morale.

You don’t need permission from your boss to tell Jessica how well hard you know she worked last saturday. You don’t need a dual-sign off on a anniversary card to give to an intern graduate you recruited precisely 1 year ago. Morale comes from the heart, and no board member, no chairman and certainly no accountant can stop you in leading your team to new highs of morale.

To Your Success in Achieving Higher Morale!

Simon Oates ~ Leadership Expert

5 Top Ways To Introduce The Culture of ‘Fun’ To The Workplace

“Fun” Workplaces are one of the biggest magnets for graduates looking for a bright place to launch their career. Early twenty-somethings, also known as Generation Y, aren’t just interested in a generous salary or promotion potential – they want to apply to companies that have a lively culture and accept that professionalism doesn’t necessarily mean boredom.

So how can you, as a manager, go about injecting a bit of fun into the daily working routine of your employees? Read on for our 6 favourite methods that have emerged in the past few years.

1. Pranks

Everyone enjoys a good laugh, and provided the victim gets to keep a fraction of their dignity – they will too. Having a atmosphere of quirky pranks will gel your team together as a more cohesive bunch. The more stories they can tell about each other, the more they’ll enjoy spending time together. Some suggested pranks:

• Computer Malfunction. This one is a classic prank, which is very annoying for the victim. First take a screen shot of the victim’s desktop. Now set this screen shot as the background and make it a point to hide all the icons and the task bar and lock them. Now if the victim tries to click anything nothing will work. They will think their computer is frozen and will try to reboot and do any and everything to get their computer to work.

• Post-it Prank. You will have to stay back late after your victim leaves the office or come to the office well in advance to play this prank. All you have to do is cover your co-workers desk and the entire cubicle with post-its. In case you want to make it seem more annoying, put funny messages on each of the post-it notes.

• Telephone Mania. You will need an accomplice for this one. All you need to do is get a co-workers phone, and your own phone and dial the phone numbers of two other co-workers you wish to harass. When the phones ring, switch on the speaker phones of both the phones and hold the phones together so that the two victims can hear each other. Once they start talking, just listen to the confused conversation and have the last laugh!

Find more fun prank ideas here. (External website)

2. Special Lunches/Trips

Once, every month – take your team out for a cinema trip and lunch combination. Being together outside of work will really help new teams to bond, and provide a fresh distraction for veteran employees. I have visited over 20 work places in the past 6 months, and when talking to the staff during their day to day business – they sound the proudest when discussing various perks or activities that management arrange on a weekly or monthly basis.

“Every Tuesday, they pop over the road and buy us all Fish & Chips!” they proudly exclaim. My jealousy only makes their smile widen.

Its amazing how buying a simple lunch can sometimes do more wonders for the motivation of employees when compared with an expensive leadership development programmes or other leadership training.

3. Sweets

Buy sweets spontaneously and leave them in the office or workplace. Never underestimate the power of sweets to lift up moods and turn the harshest boss back into a school child as their face lights up.

4.  Humourous Awards

Whether at the Christmas party – or better – every month or quarter, dish out humourous awards to your staff for various funny qualities or achievements. Here are some examples:

• “Change of Address” - For the staff member who never leaves.

• “The Lochness Award” – Staff member least likely to be found.

• “The Torvill and Dean Award” – For skating round the issues

• “The Selective Hearing Impairment Award” – For only hearing what you want to hear

• “The Clock Watcher” – For being out never later than a minute past 5!

• “The Professional Surfer” – For most time spent on the internet.

• “The Bermuda Triangle Award” – For the desk where things go in and never come out!

5. Allow fun!

The most important element of this list is that in order for your employees to have a good time – you have to really let them! Show leadership in playing pranks yourself and having fun everyday. Officially tweaking company policy to incoporate ‘fun’ into the culture will have as much effect as including it in the small print of their contract – unless you show them that you’re truely commited to them having a good time, and that you won’t frown upon workers for trying to do so.

I hope you enjoyed this guide on how to have a more fun office environment. Fun is the greater motivator, so go out and create some!

Author – Simon Oates – leadership-expert.co.uk

Learning Lessons In Resilience From The Newly Unemployed

I still learn about leadership every day. In this challenging economic climate I’m learning faster than ever and often from people who might not be considered traditional leaders. I’m learning from people who have lost their job. Their job represented the ability to feed their families, raise their kids the way they want, and achieve their own version of success. And now it’s gone.

Unfortunately, most of us have recently had discussions with friends or family who have recently lost their job. Right after we hear the part about how they lost their job we will hear one of two things. Either they will describe all of the obstacles that keep them from moving forward or they will talk about the opportunity they have to find a great new career and how they are working to make that happen. In these conversations I learn whether or not these people are demonstrating one of the critical leadership qualities that sets those who merely have the potential to lead, apart from those who actually do. Resilience. Every time I walk away from a conversation that sets an example for how I can deal with my own challenges more effectively, I know I just learned from a leader.

Every successful leader gets knocked off their feet occasionally and when they do, they get back up, brush themselves off, and take the next step forward. When I think back to the people that I’ve worked with who were able to take entire organizations in a new direction, what often stands out is that they dealt with the setbacks better than others. Leaders use tough situations as kindling to rebuild their own internal fire and understand how to help others do the same. They understand what it really means to lead.

There are many contrasting situations as well, people who have achieved positions of leadership but haven’t yet encountered real challenges along the way. Often, when the crisis does come, these people fall far and fast. They haven’t created the habit of resilience on their climb to the top and when they need to rely on it, it simply isn’t there to fall back on. I was having a conversation with someone in a large family run business recently who was explaining to me how, as the leadership of the company had been passed down through the family, the culture of the business had shifted significantly. The family members who built the company led it very differently, with more clarity and a stronger sense of values than those who came after them. The current leaders were handed the reigns more because of who they were than what they had accomplished or the leadership they had demonstrated. These new leaders will be tested. How they respond will have everything to do with whether or not they have earned the right to continue to lead.

There’s that old adage that anyone can steer a ship when the seas are calm. Real leadership is required at those rarer but inevitable times when the storm comes. During the recession, many people are facing their own personal storm; a storm that has the potential to shake their confidence, dent their self-esteem and even alter their dreams. It also has to potential to increase their determination, rekindle their fire and create a better future than they ever imagined. During challenging times there are always leaders who emerge stronger and more capable because of how they choose to deal with those times. We need to make sure that we take the time to learn from them. They will teach us how to weather our own storms when they come. And maybe even understand why we need them.

This is a guest post authored by Randy Hall from http://4thgearconsulting.com

What are your thoughts on what we can learn from others in adversity?

Leadership Mentoring – Developing Your Own Style

When you were working yourself up the ladder undoubtedly there were days when you had to drag yourself to work. It wasn’t because of the job or your team mates; it was because the managers said the same thing day in and day out. Motivation was low and the word fun was non-existent

The shoe is on the other foot now and you can make a difference if you think about those rough days in the past. Typically there was one manager with charisma and motivation that gave you energy and motivation causing you to look forward to the day ahead. If you were smart, you realized this and stored it in your memory bank for the future. I am not suggesting that you emulate them totally but remember the experiences gained to develop your own leadership style.

Let me share an experience, when I was a young man I worked with a leader that was incredibly demanding. He daily challenged me, I would learn something new and the next day was proud and wanting to show him I knew my stuff. He without fail would ask me something entirely new and different. It took me quiet a while to fully respect and understand what he was doing for me, developing me into a leader. I thought I hated him but in time I realized he was the greatest mentor of my life. That was his leadership style and it worked, on me anyway.

Several years later I was fortunate to have another mentor that was a walking motivational machine. He was the most inspirational person I had ever met and fortunately for me I was the one he selected to groom. He made work a thrill teaching and sharing his wealth of knowledge.

I soon realized that one leader can make the difference in countless ways. I took a lot from both of these men as both had the same goal but different styles of accomplishing it. The first leader made me excited about coming to work to exhibit my talents while the second one honed my skills motivating me how to expand my knowledge and experiences. I didn’t emulate either one totally but admired and respected each equally and learned how to make a job enjoyable.

This is an article from a guest author – Ron Kirby. You can learn more about him on his profile page at http://www.egsebastian.com/RonK.

The 4 Essentials Of Strategic Thinking

Is your organization spending too much time seemingly rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic? Are the senior decision makers consistently voicing the need to make substantial change in the face of a complex and dynamic environment yet no real change takes place? Is the organization spending a great deal of time planning strategically but the answers to the questions keep coming out the same? Perhaps the problem is not with the answers, but with the questions. Perhaps strategic planning, a management process, is inappropriate for finding the path to change. Instead what is required is a leadership process, such as strategic thinking, that calls into question all the questions being asked.

Looking for the Right Questions

Simply stated, if an organization does not do strategic thinking before it does strategic planning, it is the same as rearranging those deck chairs. Why? Because in the end no one really cares where the deck chairs are positioned on the lounge deck if there is a great big hole in the boat, i.e., the big hole in the boat presents a much more pressing problem.

Strategic planning is about finding the right “answers” to questions. In strategic planning the questions already exist, they have been decided. On the other hand, strategic thinking is an imaginative process designed to assure that key decision makers are asking themselves the right questions. Strategic thinking does not start with a set of questions. It starts with the proverbial clean sheet of paper. Decision makers form no preconceived questions, disregard any ideas of what works and what does not, making no assumptions about the organization. Optimally, the process includes a healthy vertical and horizontal cross section of the organization. Why? Because you never know where the most valuable information might come from.

But more than that, strategic thinking is an effort to develop industry foresight. As Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad write in their book Competing for the Future, industry foresight often starts with what could be, and then works back to what must happen for that future to come about. Questions are the root of all knowledge, and crafting the right questions provides senior decision makers the ability to imagine the future in the context of present and future risks and threats.

An Overview of a Strategic Thinking Process

Threats or Risks-start with that clean sheet of paper. The process begins with assessing the threats or risks, both internal and external, to the organization. Said another way, it is vital for the senior decision makers to know the internal and external forces impacting their future. Emerging trends in technology, new competitors, customer service, and succession planning could all pose different types of risks or threats. The idea is to get everything on the table so that it is in full view of the decision makers.

Strengths-R&D investment, financial structure, timely distribution, active web and Blog presence and developing people may very well be strengths of the organization. Strengths provide leverage that can be used to gain specific industry advantages or buffer weaknesses. For example, the organization may have a robust web and Blog presence on the Internet having cultivated a large loyal fan base. These relationships are a substantial strength that can be used to assess and develop new products and services.

Weaknesses-What is it that the organization is not doing so well, that needs improvement or is having a negative systemic effect on the rest of the organizations operations or administration? Seeking weaknesses is not an exercise in seeking blame. Inappropriate organization structure, human capital retention, lack of leadership development programs may well be some of the issues that emerge as weaknesses.

Gaps-Identifying the gaps between the strengths and weaknesses as they relate to the real and perceived risks require some type of response and become the grist for the strategic planning mill. Now strategic and tactical strategies can be created, resources and assets assigned and prioritized and the day-to-day job of creating the future and closing the gaps is turned from imagination into reality.

Conclusion

In our rapidly changing, complex world filled with more information than one might have imagined just a few years ago, sorting through the facts, the hype and emerging issues and challenges drives the need to continually rework the organization’s collective foresight. To do otherwise, may result in a small leak turning into a big hole leaving the crew and passengers scampering for the lifeboats saying to themselves, “But I thought we were unsinkable!”

Author: www.leadsimm.com

Leadership Development

Leadership-Expert™ is dedicated to helping you develop your skills as a leader. Over the past 3 years I have helped nearly half a million people worldwide to access powerful, transformational leadership resources and learning opportunities. Much of the information on this site is free. There is also a comprehensive range of leadership training and leadership coaching solutions for new line managers, right the way through to Executive leadership courses. I have trawled the 30 million leadership pages of the internet and have brought the very best leadership solutions to you to save you the time and energy we all waste looking elsewhere. How many times did you start by seeking some information from a website and leaving after only 2 minutes, because you didn’t have the time to read everything; but before you know it a couple of hours have passed you by, because you are still searching. I have done all that for you, so there is no need to look elsewhere.

Leadership development is something we all seek at some point in our career. It inevitably begins when we are first thrust into a management role.

We are left asking the questions like ‘What is good leadership?’ and ‘How can I become a good leader?’

I love these questions. I get asked by so many people at different levels in different organisations. What they scream out to me is just how many people positively yearn to be great leaders. They want to reach into peoples hearts and minds to help them grow and thrive. They want to build trust, earn respect and unleash their teams energy to win. One of my readers recently emailed me saying his goal is to be remembered by his team as the very best boss they ever had.

While some leaders are born, they can also be made. You can learn to become a leader. And that’s where leadership development fits in.

Leadership development can take varying forms, depending on what your preferred learning style is and how long you have to develop yourself.

The table below outlines some of the certificated leadership development opportunities that are open to you. Some of these learning methods include a qualification, where-as other don’t. Some people need the theoretical and academic achievement for career progression and others are more interested in practical, workable, ‘on-the-ground’ solutions that give immediate results. These programmes cater for every need. So to find the best way for you to learn to become an authentic and accomplished leader, see what’s available in the table below based on your current role, or the one you aspire to and then click on the relevant links below:

Learning resources	New manager/ newly promoted	Middle management	Senior management	Executive/ CEO/Talent	Entrepreneur
Leadership books	X	X	X	X	X
Leadership toolkit	X	X	X	X	X
Leadership videos	X	X	X		X
Leadership news and articles	X	X	X	X	X
Leadership courses	X	X	X		X
Executive courses				X
Leadership coach	X	X	X	X	X
Leadership qualifications	X	X	X	X	X
Bespoke leadership training			X	X	X

 

Clicking in each area will take you through the dedicated programmes which you can access directly through Leadership-Expert or with the companies I recommend.

Leadership Books:

Leadership Toolkit:

Leadership Videos:

Leadership news and articles – click here to subscribe for free, if you are not already a member of our growing leadership community and I will send you the weekly leadership updates.

Leadership Courses:

Executive Courses:

Leadership Coaching programmes:

Leadership qualifications:

Bespoke Leadership Training:

Click here to find out what others say about the leadership development programmes. TESTIMONIALS

In terms of your own leadership development, the real question is what do I need to learn and how will I know when I am a great leader? The fact is, being a leader changes everything. Before you became a leader, success was all about growing yourself. It was about your achievement, your performance. It was all about you. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. It’s about making the people who now work for you, smarter and bolder, unlocking and releasing their full potential. So the dichotomy is this – I’m not sure that you will ever find out if you are a great leader or not – it’s almost a posthumous title. Andrew Carnegie, one of the most successful and wealthy leaders of his day has on his tombstone. ‘Here lies a man who knew how to get around him, people who were cleverer than he.’

*Leadership-Expert™ Courses are designed by Simon Teague LLP, a UK Government registered training provider (UKRPN: 10035854). Simon Teague is a UK National Training Award winning coach and fully qualified teacher/trainer. He is a fellow if the International School of Finance, Associate of Institute for Learning and a fully qualified Best Year Yet Coach.

If you would like a quote for bespoke leadership training and coaching please email us directly at simon@simonteague.com

I’m not an organisation. I’m an individual. How can I improve my leadership skills?

Like many things in life – if you look in the right places, you’ll always be able to find a great resource for a bargain. Leadership development is completely intertwined with the idea of self-investment. All excellent leaders regularly invest in themselves – sometimes to great expense. But if you follow my guidance, you’ll be able to build your skills for the minimum cost.

See other links:

Leadership Development Training : What is leadership training? How much does it Cost?

Leadership Development Programme : What is a leadership programme? How to build a successful one.

Leadership development assessment: Companies like Leadership Connections can undertake comprehensive assessment to help you select, identify, develop and retain your leaders and improve leadership in your organisation.

Leadership Classes : Are leadership classes an effective way to boost your leadership ability?

Leadership Training : Is formalised training always the answer?

Leadership Courses : The trend towards personal study is increasing.

Leadership Coaching : Is one-on-one coaching the solution to the leadership problems of large companies?

If you would like to discuss how Leadership-Expert might be able to help you develop your leadership skills with the range of leadership development training and coaching programmes we have available or can access through our research of the best leadership training programmes on the market, please email simon@simonteague.com and we will respond to you within 24 hours.

 

The Pursuit Of Something Better – Review

If you’re looking for a review of “The Pursuit Of Something Better” then you’ve come to the right place. I’m currently reading an advance copy, and will be publishing Leadership Expert’s official review within a week, so stay tuned!

Introduction

‘The Pursuit Of Something Better’ follows the story of  US Cellular – a regional telecoms company, through its journey to becoming home to one of the most vibrant and motivated cultures in the USA. As an underdog in the telecoms industry – US Cellular has to fight to survive in the modern world, but the employees fight for it, due to their extreme loyalty and pride.

On one day every year, the managers from across the organisation leave their positions to attend a conference that announces the results of something very dear to them – the annual employee satisfaction questionnaire. Grass-root staff rise to the challenge and the company ticks over just fine without them. The atmosphere at the conference is likened to that of a concert – not an annual review. What on earth has happened at this company to drive such enthusiasm?

Well, you’ll have to buy the book yourself to find out!

Review

Review is coming soon!

Purchase

This title was released on the 15th of August 2009.

You can pre-order this book on Amazon UK here

If you’d like to read a review of this book on other blogs, you can visit here and here.

Leadership Challenges

We all face leadership challenges at some point of our lives. If you’re searching for leadership challenges then you’ve come to the right place. You could be looking for one of two interpretations of this phrase.

1. Leadership challenge to mean, an attempt to overthrow your authority. “What can I do to protect myself against somebody overuling my leadership?“. For the answers to these kinds of questions, I suggest you reflect upon your own leadership skills rather than those of your ‘competition’. Are your leadership skills up to scratch? If you want to improve them, click here.

2. Leadership challenges to mean difficult and rewarding leadership experiences. “How can I deal with this situation and come out of it a stronger person?“. This is the topic this article deals with.

In most organisations – you will encounter challenges as a leader many times a year, possibly even many times a week, depending on how much pressure is placed on your role. The key to dealing with these is to quickly picture in your head a clear image of the benefits you would receiving from successfully accomplishing this task. Reduced stress? Increased respect? Improved promotion prospects?

Almost every scenario you will encounter – glorious benefits will await you on the other side. The thought of these will help motivate you, and that is why I ask that you picture them immediately.

Next, you need to look inwards and decide whether you have the appropriate leadership skills and experience to be able to overcome the current difficulty. Don’t worry if you look at your skill set and admit ‘I’m not experienced at this area’, because you can certainly compensate for lack of experience by good preparation.

To hone up your leadership skills I’d recommend buying a quick and effective leadership course such as ‘Apply Leadership‘, which is the product I talk about most to those who ask me which leadership e-course I would recommend. (You can follow the link to read my review).

Once you have the benefits clearly in mind, and a good preparation, it’s time to tackle the leadership challenge head on. This will probably involve implementing a strategy of leading that you are perhaps not 100% comfortable with. Perhaps you read a leadership book that suggested a certain leadership style, but you don’t feel that it’s working. Don’t worry! A subtle change of direction can go unnoticed by the workforce if you display confidence in your actions.

Follow these tips and you will be able to weather any leadership challenge, and emerge from the other side as a success leader with an extra notch on your belt!

 

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