What Do Leaders Really Do? Getting under the skin of what makes a great leader tick

by Grout, Jeff; Fisher, Liz

• ISBN13: 9781841127576
• ISBN10: 1841127574
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-24
• Publisher: Capstone

Summary

An enormous range of literature on leadership and management theory has been produced over the years, some of it highly academic and much of it contradictory. What Do Leaders Really Do? takes the basis of the best-known management theories to see how they fit with the practical reality of leadership. How do leaders spend their time? Are they really preoccupied with strategy, vision and inspiring people? Do they lead by accident, or design? The book challenges the assumption that leaders are born, not made and explores the theory that female leaders are fundamentally different from their male counterparts. What Do Leaders Really Do? Looks into the everyday working lives of well-known leaders in a variety of fields - business, sport and the armed forces - in order to identify the elements that encourage people to follow where they lead. Drawing on the experiences of a wide range of leaders with varying backgrounds and roles, as well as a range of respected academics and management writers, this book will closely analyse the background, experiences and behaviour of a diverse set of leaders. A central part of the analysis will be a detailed examination of what these leaders do on a day-to-day basis. It is not a book about management theory but an accessible, no-nonsense guide to those theories and how they translate to real life. Many people lead effectively without knowing how they do it; this book will isolate and identify the core skills and behaviour displayed by effective leaders. What Do Leaders Really Do? is intended to be a refreshing alternative to the hundreds of academically-oriented leadership books that are available. The tone will be straight-forward, accessible and sometimes humorous, rich with first-person evidence and anecdotes. It will dissect popular leadership theory into the easily understandable basics, with reference to the practicalities of real-life leadership situations. After all, what good is theory if it doesn't work in practice? Proposed Chapters Part I: The Building Blocks Chapter 1: How did they get there? Chapter 2: Born or made? Part II: Dealing with People Chapter 3: Inspiration Chapter 4: Communication Chapter 5: Trust Chapter 6: Keeping it real Part III: The Big Picture Chapter 7: Vision On Chapter 8: Change management Chapter 9: Risky Business Chapter 10: When it all goes wrong Part IV: Me, Myself and I Chapter 11: Self-motivation Chapter 12: Self-development Chapter 13: Looking after No.1 Confirmed Contributors Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO Saatchi & Saatchi Martin Glenn, Former President PepsiCo UK Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman London 2012 Sir Clive Woodward, Former England Rugby Coach Martin Johnson, Former England Rugby Captain Nasser Hussein, Former England Cricket Captain Greg Dyke, Former Director-General, BBC Ron Dennis, Chief Executive MacLaren Group Kate Swann, Chief Executive W H Smith Gail Rebuck, Chief Executive Random House Lord Field Marshall Inge, former Head of Joint Chiefs of Staff Dame Stella Rimington, former Director-General MI5 Heather Rabbatts, former Chief Executive London Borough of Lambeth, Head of Channel 4 Learning & Deputy Chair Millwall FC Colonel Bob Stewart, Former UN Commander in Bosnia Major General Patrick Cordingley, Commander of Desert Rats during Gulf War Commander Nigel MacCartan-Ward, Commanding Officer Sea Harrier Squadron, Falklands War

Author Biography

Jeff Grout is a respected adviser, commentator and columnist on the subjects of motivation, recruitment and retention.  He is a regular speaker at conferences and events, specialising in topics such as Building high-performance teams and The characteristics of success.  He is also business manager to Clive Woodward, the former England Rugby coach.
Jeff is an experienced television and radio participant and has collaborated with the BBC in producing an interview training video.   He has also run interview technique courses for a number of the UK’s leading companies.
Jeff is co-author of Mind Games, The Adventure Capitalists and My Brilliant Career, which insights into the characteristics of career success, based on public interviews with high achievers from the fields of sport, business media and the stage.

Liz Fisher is a freelance journalist and writer, contributing regularly to many business and professional magazines.  During her twenty years as a business journalist, she has interviewed leaders in a range of fields, from the RAF to the RSC.  She is co-author of The Bluffer’s Guide to Accountancy and author of Brand Identity in Retail Financial Services and a careers guide for young accountants.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
	p. 1
Characteristics of Leadership	p. 3
The charisma question	p. 10
A substitute for charisma	p. 12
Leadership by osmosis	p. 14
Background	p. 17
The influence of family life	p. 20
Education	p. 22
Learning leadership	p. 26
Career progression	p. 27
Influences	p. 31
The influence of parents	p. 32
The influence of teachers	p. 35
The influence of bosses	p. 37
Mentors and mentoring	p. 43
	p. 45
Vision	p. 47
Creating the vision	p. 49
Communicating the vision	p. 54
Long or short term?	p. 59
Decision-making and Risk	p. 63
Military mission analysis	p. 68
Risk and the military	p. 70
Risk and business leaders	p. 73
Mistakes and Setbacks	p. 79
Learning from experience	p. 85
Analysing failure and success	p. 89
Change Management	p. 93
Why do most change initiatives fail?	p. 96
Communicating change	p. 99
Culture change	p. 102
Early days, quick wins	p. 104
	p. 109
Empathetic and Authentic Leadership	p. 111
Empathetic leadership	p. 113
Caring leadership	p. 116
Sensing mood	p. 118
Delivering bad news	p. 121
Authentic leadership	p. 124
The stories people tell	p. 128
Visibility	p. 131
Keep your distance	p. 133
Motivation, Inspiration and Morale	p. 135
Celebrating successes	p. 140
Morale	p. 142
Inspirational leadership	p. 144
The role of oration	p. 147
Choosing and Building a Team	p. 151
The power of diversity	p. 154
Trust	p. 157
Developing future leaders	p. 159
Preparing for success	p. 160
Teamship rules and professionalism	p. 162
Team spirit	p. 164
Communication	p. 167
Too much talk?	p. 168
Authentic communication	p. 171
Honesty and integrity	p. 174
Communicating outside the company	p. 176
Dealing with the media	p. 177
Looking After No 1	p. 181
Creating space to think	p. 184
Self-improvement and learning	p. 187
Recommended reading	p. 189
Leadership and lifelong learning	p. 190
Knowing when to quit	p. 192
Final thoughts on leadership	p. 195
Appendix	p. 197
Bibliography and Further Reading	p. 202
Index	p. 204
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