The 18 challenges of leadership : a practical, structured way to develop your leadership talent / Trevor Waldock & Shenaz Kelly-Rawat.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

You're a manager. A leader. You come to work and are faced with challenges from the moment you walk through the door (not to mention the ones that followed you home the previous evening). Some of these challenges are internal, some are external. They will also change across your life span and career span.

How are you doing in your response to these challenges? Are you clear on what they are? Could you become more effective at responding to each? What actions will you commit to, in order to move forward?

Up to now, much leadership development within organizations has been through the use of competency models. You've probably experienced this. It will have been decided what behaviours your organization wants to see in its leaders - if they are to be effective. Like the NHS 16 Qualities. The organization then creates and runs a 360 feedback on each manager, the results of which often need an expert to interpret the wad of pages of data. You, the manager probably came away with a few insights and then put the report at the bottom of a deep drawer. And forgot about it.

There is another way. One that you own and that therefore you are far more involved in. It ceases to be something that's done to you - it becomes something you do. Our approach is to engage you in setting the agenda yourself. You become the expert. And you see where you need to act - and how.

With the 18 Challenges:

This is the ONLY leadership book that is designed so that you only have to read the chapters you want and need and you can leave the others until you are ready or you need them.

Most leadership books focus either on the theory around leadership or underline the business importance of different aspects of leadership. This book is not about trying to come up with new theories; it is about making the existing theories and models accessible to everyone in a way that helps them put them to work.

This is the book that will allow you to:

Understand

what the key challenges of leadership are

Reflect on your ability to tackle each

Develop your ability to be more effective

Act to become a better leader

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Challenge 1 The Proactive Challenge - learning to write the story
• Challenge 2 The Influence Challenge - making a clear impact
• Challenge 3 The Reality Challenge - understand where you are
• Challenge 4 The Vision Challenge - creating an engaging picture of the future
• Challenge 5 The Strategy Challenge - defining a path to the future
• Challenge 6 The Wisdom Challenge - applying your learning from experience
• Challenge 7 The Insight Challenge - seeing beyond the obvious
• Challenge 8 The Confidence Challenge - developing self-belief
• Challenge 9 The Internal Compass Challenge - lead yourself so you can lead others
• Challenge 10 The 'Bigger and Bigger Challenge' Challenge - continuously growing your skills base
• Challenge 11 The Vertigo Challenge
• Challenge 12 The 'Managing The Tension Between Holding On and Letting Go' Challenge - the art of delegation
• Challenge 13 The 'Life and Career Transition' Challenge - change across the whole lifespan
• Challenge 14 The Loneliness Challenge - creating networks to maintain integrity
• Challenge 15 The Personality Challenge - understanding your impact on others
• Challenge 16 The Pathology Challenge - managing the effects of your blind spots
• Challenge 17 The Confusion-Complexity-Chaos Challenge - performing through uncertainty
• Challenge 18 The Work-Life Balance Challenge - getting results whilst living a satisfying life
• Appendix 1 The final question: 'What will you do now?'
• Appendix 2 Getting feedback on your influencing behaviours
• Appendix 3 The complete assessment summaryBibliography

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Trevor is Managing Director of The Executive Coach ltd. He has extensive experience in executive and senior management coaching - including the delivery of 1:1 and team coaching along with whole-organisation coaching interventions and training coaches. His expertise is in combining his passion for leadership development with his skill as a top-level coach, his experience in organisational consultancy and his thorough understanding of the psychology of personal change.Previously Trevor spent 15 years in leadership in the voluntary sector included five years being Chief Executive of a national start-up. He then trained with the Covey Leadership Centre and worked for a consultancy firm before founding The Executive Coach. Trevor works alongside some of the other top Executive Coaches in his role as Faculty member of The School of Coaching at The Work Foundation in association with Myles Downey. He is guest lecturer on Leadership for Anglia Polytechnic University's MBA Programme.

Shenaz has a background in occupational psychology and psychotherapy and has a wide experience in consultancy, research, training and employment development within corporate culture. Her skill and experience in both a therapeutic background and organisational development have given her a unique perspective in individual and team performance issues as well as personal development within an organisational context. Shenaz has increasingly focused these skills in the area of coaching at all levels of an organisation.