Leaders

It’s with some reluctance that I sit down to write a blog about leadership. This may surprise you as I spend so much of my time coaching leaders.

I just wonder if it’s all been said before.

If you search on Google for leadership development there are 7.5 billion hits and on the website beginning with A there are 60,000+ books on leadership. For anyone looking to explore leadership that is bewildering and off-putting.

So do we actually need any more books on this topic? And does the key to your leadership lie in a book in any case?

My regular advice when I am coaching leaders - aspiring or existing - is to work out how they want to be as a leader and which conditions they want to create around them. This lies at the heart of my leadership coaching practice and the approach I have developed can be amongst the most powerful sessions I run.

Once a leader has identified their brand, and has exhausted their own thinking on how to bring it to life and worked hard on whatever stands in the way of their being the best possible leader they can be, then might be the time to read the right book. One which is well-regarded and also drives results.

For example, if one searches on the same website for situational leadership the results are limited to c230 books and, in any event, I would probably know which to recommend or, for a busy leader, which articles to read instead.

It has to be about devising your own approach(es) and not simply taking ideas from scenarios which may be very different from your own unique context.

At Chelsham we also have content to offer as you might imagine. And we aren’t afraid to make suggestions to support your own ideas. I will put some of them into the next blog but meanwhile…

…next time you see the “latest book on leadership” please ponder whether your answers lie within it or within you. I think I know the answer.

More on our coaching practice here. Let me know if you’d like a chat.

And good luck!

Tony