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For now, this is the best place to get your hands on a copy of the book. In the future, there will be access to other materials and supporting products so watch this space…

The Leadership Catalyst – 10 steps to becoming a great leader

A labour of love put together over the two and a half years, it is the foundational piece of work at the heart of The Leadership Catalyst. I hope it will be the catalyst you need to develop as a leader – take five minutes to read the introduction below and see if it grabs your attention or head straight to the bottom to get your copy!

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i – Introduction

I’ll be honest with you right from the start, this book is a tool, not an answer. I could spend a day on each of these chapters or write 100 pages. What this book can be though is an insight. The information is here to help you and I have written this in a way that means how it helps you will depend very much on you. Yes, you can read this book in less than a couple of hours but believe me, you can take a lot from these points and you will be a better leader for having read them.

This brief overview might be all you need but equally, this book might be the kindling which starts a fire within. Every one of these topics can be researched, studied and developed further and what’s more, this is by no means an exhaustive list of skills. No leader ever stops learning and every time you read this book, you will take something different from it based on your experiences.

You can dip into this book knowing that in ten minutes you can remind yourself of a quality or skill you already have (self-gratification and praise are rewarding and a critical part of development). You may read a single chapter because you know it’s where you struggle or because you want to read about something you find interesting. Some will read the whole book, cover to cover in one sitting and be left yearning for more – it’s entirely up to you.

I teach leadership, coaching and communication skills one to one and in groups, privately and for business and I believe that communication and understanding are central to success in business, in relationships and in life. Understanding in its truest form opens worlds of possibility and to make the most of opportunities we get, we have to communicate well both with each other and with ourselves. Why listen to me? Why not? The Dalai Lama said:

“when you talk, you are only repeating what you already know but if you listen, you may learn something new”

This is me repeating what I have learned in the hope that as you listen, you might learn something new.

So who is this for? The simple answer is everyone. We all communicate which means we can all benefit from developing our communication skills (which includes our ability to understand). If, however, you are in a leadership position or hope to be, particularly in the business world, this book should be most beneficial. Over recent years, there has been rapid growth across many industries which has often resulted in the pace of training not keeping up with the pace of opportunity and progression. With any period of rapid growth, there is a risk of unsustainability where the ‘bubble’ may burst. For example, we have seen a lot of high street closures due to the shift in retailing practices. I believe that with better trained leaders at all levels of the business, we would have seen fewer of these closures. We will go on to talk about evolution and adapting to change but in terms of who this book is for, if you have found yourself rising through the ranks more quickly than the coaching and support of the business can cope with, this book is definitely for you.

I have been what people might call a leader for over a decade. I have led individuals, teams and groups of teams in my personal life, business life and in sport. Am I a natural leader? Some might say so but I don’t believe I have an innate advantage over anyone else. I spend a lot of time (over)thinking about what I do and so have come to an understanding about my approach. Over the years, I have had this supported and reinforced by people from a variety of walks of life through their experiences, research, observations, practice and training and this has in turn strengthened my self-belief and intensified my desire to understand and to pass this understanding on.

It is fair to say that a lot of what I have learned about leadership could be seen as learning what not to do. We can follow the examples people give us or we can choose to do things differently and I have spent most of my professional career deciding to do things differently. It was this that drove me to write this book. I’m not saying that I know the way to lead people, I’m not saying that I know better than anyone or more than anyone, this is just me speaking from experience. I feel lucky to be where I am and to have had the teams I have had. This book is an exploration of what I have been through to get to this stage, an exploration that I hope you will find interesting, useful and might just give you the alternate perspective you need to make a change in your life, career or decision-making approach.

Communication is king, understanding is everything