Leadership, Coaching & HRD

THE BEST OF THE ACTIVE REVIEWING GUIDE by Roger Greenaway

Synopsis Whether you're an advertiser trying to convince consumers to switch brands, a CEO trying to change the culture of a company, or an individual trying to reconcile a long-standing rift with a friend - changing someone's mind is an incredibly difficult task. Why do we become set on a particular way of thinking? What actually happens in our minds as we shift from one perspective to a dramatically different one? And what forces impel or hinder mind change? In this important book, eminent Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, whose work has revolutionized our beliefs about intelligence, creativity, and leadership, offers an original framework for understanding the universal mystery of human mind change. Drawing on decades of cognitive research, Gardner introduces seven powerful factors - ranging from reason to real world events to resistance - that bring about or thwart significant changes of mind. Through compelling case studies of mind change agents from the famous to the ordinary, Gardner reveals exactly what happens during the course of mind change and how to effectively influence that process. Whether your audience is a nation, a group of colleagues, a spouse, or yourself, this book provides insights and tools for changing minds in ways that improve and enrich our lives. (Amazon.co.uk) see these reviews at amazon.com

Synopsis: This book offers managers 50 fun, illuminating experiential activities for building a positive, open and productive relationship with the people they manage. The games are designed to help foster better relationships with employees, in order to increase job satisfaction, employee loyalty, and increased profits. Unlike ropes courses and other off-site management activities, these games can be carried out in the workplace during staff meetings, training sessions, or even in the course of daily work. The ten chapters cover a diverse range of topics and skills - all of which are essential to a good working relationship between manager and employee. (Amazon.co.uk)

Synopsis: This work provides readers with a range of tools and techniques to help them assess and respond to a variety of difficult challenges. It covers 14 situational challenges, which include case examples, tools and models and suggested follow-up work. It also includes seven core practices. (Amazon.co.uk)

Synopsis: There is continuing government pressure on public services to "reform". Expectations of new forms and standards of delivery, joined-up practice and the reconnection of services to users are high. Unfortunately, many policy makers have become reliant on mechanistic top-down audit and inspection regimes as the means of implementation. This book sets out to redress the balance. It argues powerfully that whole systems approaches are required to lead the changes towards the demands for new service configurations, partnership working and local and neighbourhood governance. The book outlines the theory behind whole systems development and gives good practice guidance on how to effectively develop "systems" to improve joined-up working. "Leading Change": explores the "five keys" to whole systems development - leadership, public learning, diversity, meeting differently and follow-through; sets this in the context of five policy dilemmas and ten core values; and looks towards new forms of organising - towards communities of practice and managed networks. This book should be read by both policy-makers and practitioners across the public, private, not-for-profit, voluntary and community sectors, and especially the many who are seeking a better way to manage change. It is written in the hope and anticipation of reconnecting policy and practice, and all those engaged in these vital fields. (Amazon.co.uk)

Book Description: The Hidden Intelligence explores what intuition is and is not, and why it is often hidden. Based on interviews with executives from Fortune 500 organizations to entrepreneurial startups, the book is full of insights the author has gathered over the years working with creative problem solving and ideation techniques. It brings our intuition into the mainstream of those skills crucial to running a successful business. (Amazon.co.uk) From the Author: ... Tips are offered on how to tap into it whenever you need to make an important decision and do not have enough facts that point in a clear direction. Find out why a Harvard MBA, Vice Chairman of a major corporation uses a pendulum for his decision making. Learn how to invent new products,as many of the great inventors did, using this inner mind skill.

Synopsis: Shares how individuals can come together to formulate common goals and a course of action, and ultimately complete a project as a team.

Describing the internal landscape and external style needed to seriously engage in social change, this book presents twelve leadership stances which will change your life. Grounded in nearly 50 years of ICAs in-depth research and practical experience in over 30 nations, the book offers the lived experience of leadership in a wide variety of situations. (publisher's description, ICA)

Maverick!
Ricardo Semler

Synopsis: Workers make the decisions previously made by their bosses * Managerial staff set their own salaries and bonuses * Everyone has access to the company books * No formality - a minimum of meetings, memos and approvals * Internal walls torn down * Shopfloor workers set their own productivity targets and schedules Result - Semco is one of Latin America's fastest-growing companies, acknowledged to be the best in Brazil to work for, and with a waiting list of thousands of applicants hoping to join it. This book offers the chance to learn Ricardo Semler's secrets and let some of the Semco magic rub off on you and your company. (amazon.co.uk) Readers' reviews of Maverick!

The Leadership Challenge:
How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations
James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner

Synopsis: This revised edition is designed for leaders in business, government, education, communities and all across society. It focuses on leadership as a critical aspect of human organizations and aims to demonstrate that leadership is everyone's business. This book features stories and the authors' personal insights into the fundamental aspects of leadership. (Amazon.co.uk)

Credibility:
How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It
James Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner

Synopsis: Based on the authors' extensive work in workshops and through the Tom Peters Group in the values, qualities, and attributes of credible leadership, this work takes the view that leadership is a relationship with credibility as the foundation. Credibility, they argue, comes from a combination of self-knowledge, values clarification, and service. The book begins with a discussion of leadership, service, and the importance of relationships. It then moves on to show why credibility is a cornerstone of leadership. The authors present a chapter on each of the six disciplines (honesty, being forward-looking, inspiration, competence, consistency, and change over time), laying out a clear process for building and evaluating credibility. (Amazon.co.uk)

Intelligent Leadership
Alistair Mant

Synopsis: The author reveals the two qualities he believes count most toward successful lives, enterprises and countries - leadership and intelligence. He offers inspirational stories of unexpected leaders, the shock of spectacular blunders, and arresting metaphors and connections to make sense of them all. (Amazon.co.uk)

Making It Happen: Reflections on Leadership
John Harvey-Jones

Synopsis: How do you galvanize a company, so that from top to bottom it is geared for success? The author's experience of leadership is second to none, and his achievements at ICI speak for themselves. But how did he salvage ICI from its slump? Reflecting on his years as chairman of ICI, and on his experience of leadership in the Royal Navy, the author offers commonsense advice on all aspects of business life and management. In particular, he demonstrates how it is possible to run a company with time and respect for everyone involved, and how this enables a company to excel. (Amazon.co.uk) The book includes Sir John's simple theory of 'Judo' management.

Intelligent Leadership:
creating a passion for change
Alan Hooper, John Potter

Synopsis: The authors examine how changes affect people in businesses and organizations - including specific case studies - and propose practical ways for leaders to provide effective leadership, and commitment to their workforce, in a rapidly changing and confusing work environment.

Zapp!
the Lightning of Empowerment
William C. Byham, Jeff Cox

Book Description: Zapp! is a modern-day fable that explores the concept of empowerment in easily recognizable and applicable terms. It details what managers and organizations must do to create and maintain an empowered work force... Much more accessible than other works on participative management, Zapp! shows managers how to encourage responsibility, acknowledgement, and creativity so that employees feel they "own" their jobs. With hands-on examples, Zapp! shows readers the basics that allow them to use this principle in every situation, from large meetings to one-on-one conversations to formal evaluations, and really get results. Zapp! has been inspiring managers worldwide for more than a decade, selling 4 1/2 million copies in 10 languages. (Amazon.co.uk)

Gung Ho!
Turn on the People in Any Organization
Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles

Synopsis: Every day thousands of uninspired employees trudge to work often dooming their companies to failure with their lack of enthusiasm. Drawing on over 20 years' experience of working with hundreds of corporations across the US including America Online, Eastman Kodak, General Motors, Hershey Chocolate and Microsoft, Blanchard reveals a surefire strategy for boosting employee enthusiasm, productivity and performance. This text presents a simple system for inspiring employees. Based on three core ideas: work must be seen as important: workers must be put in control of their own production: and managers must cheer their workers on. (Amazon.co.uk)

The Ultimate Consultant:
Next Step for the Successful Practitioner
Alan Weiss

Alan Weiss has a great writing style and this book is a must read for practicing consultants. It avoids the classic, how to set up a consulting business basics. Which puts it neatly into the 'how can I grow my practice' genre. It will motivate you to grow your business by adding value for your clients. (extract from a review at Amazon.co.uk)

Peak Performance:
Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees
Jon R. Katzenbach

Review (extracts): ... Jon Katzenbach asserts that today's companies will get the best work from their employees and beat the competition only when they actively seek out, cultivate and sustain the energy generated by their employees' emotional commitment to work. ... Katzenbach has identified five distinct paths that, he believes, achieve a balance between enterprise performance and employee fulfilment: Mission, Values and Pride; Process and Metrics; Entrepreneurial Spirit; Individual Achievement; and Recognition and Celebration. (S. Ketchum, Amazon.com) Full review

Leadership and the New Science
Margaret J. Wheatley

When Margaret J. Wheatley's Leadership and the New Science was initially published in 1992, it outlined an unquestionably unique but extremely challenging view of change, leadership and the structure of groups. Many readers immediately embraced its cutting- edge perspective, but others just could not understand how the complicated scientific tenets it described could be used to reshape institutions. Now Wheatley, an organisational specialist who has since co-authored A Simpler Way, updates the original by including additional material (such as an epilogue addressing her personal experiences during the past decade) and reconstructing some of her more challenging concepts. The result is a much clearer work that first explores the implications of quantum physics on organisational practice, then investigates ways that biology and chemistry affect living systems and finally focuses on chaos theory, the creation of a new order and the manner that scientific principles affect leadership. "Our old ways of relating to each other don't support us any longer", she writes. "It is up to us to journey forth in search of new practices and new ideas that will enable us to create lives and organisations worthy of human habitation." (Howard Rothman, Amazon.com)

The Art of Possibility
Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander

Synopsis: The message of this work is transformative. It should help readers move beyond conventional choices to find new possibilities in their work and elsewhere in their lives. It should offer a basis for approaching leadership, teamwork, and relationships of all kinds. (Amazon.co.uk)

Orbiting the Giant Hairball:
A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving With Grace
Gordon MacKenzie

Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organisation quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity ... In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full colour, Gordon McKenzie shares the story of his own professional evolution, together with lessons on awakening and fostering creative genius. Originally self-published and already a business "cult classic", this personally empowering and entertaining look at the crossroads between human creativity and the bottom line is now widely available. It will be a must-read for any manager looking for new ways to invigorate employees and any professional who wants to achieve his or her best, most self-expressive, most creative and fulfilling work. (Amazon.com) 25+ glowing reviews

How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work:
Seven Languages for Transformation
Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey

Review: "Maps both a personal transformative experience for the reader and the social arrangements that support this significant mode of adult learning. A unique and invaluable resource for adult educators, leaders in organizations, and every adult learner." (Jack Mezirow, emeritus professor of adult and continuing education, Teachers College, Columbia University) More reviews

Synopsis: This guide gives readers solutions to common workplace relationship challenges. Chapters, one for each week of the year, offer solutions for how to deal with office politics, ethical dilemmas, and seemingly unwinnable confrontations with difficult co-workers. (Amazon.co.uk)

Book Description: In this best-selling classic, Max Lansberg provides practical techniques for making your work more rewarding through the habit of Coaching. Succinct and engaging, this book offers you advice on how to coach your team and colleagues, so you can better: Give and receive feedback Apply the power of questioning - not just telling Structure a coaching discussion Build others' skills, for team results Create more time for yourself, by delegating well Synopsis: Coaching is the key to realising the potential of your employees, your organisation and yourself. The good news is that becoming a great coach requires nurturing just a few simple skills and habits. This bestselling and classic business book, now revised and relaunched, takes you through the stages needed to implement coaching to maximum effect. Easy to read and apply, the book provides the techniques and tools of coaching that are vital for anyone who wants to develop a team of people who will perform effectively and who will relish working with you. Since its publication in 1996, it has become the bible for the coaching manager. See more reviews of Tao of Coaching at Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk Review: Fiona Harrold believes, with articulate passion, that anyone can do anything. The only stumbling block is lack of self-belief. "When you believe in yourself anything is possible", she says unequivocally. She wants you to discard any beliefs which hold you back. Her practical, accessibly written book--based on her seminars with TV presenters, music stars, business executives and top politicians as well as with those in less prominent or glamorous positions--aims to show you how. Once described in the Daily Express as "the Queen Bee of British life coaching", Harrold wants you to be ambitious. And physical health is part of success and confidence. She has interesting views on eating disorders and regards overeating, smoking and drinking to excess as low self-esteem factors. Her systematic exercises--and the attitudes and affirmations she recommends--take you step by step through a radical rethink of who you are, what you want and where you are going at every level ... continuation and readers' reviews at Amazon.co.uk

Book Description: "The Coaching Manual is the most current, comprehensive, practical, best-illustrated coaching source I have ever seen." Dr Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People This is the practical, readable guide to the skills, insights and perspectives of a highly effective personal coach! Whether you’re new to coaching, or have been practicing for some time, The Manual is packed with information that will develop your coaching skills. The Manual provides expert guidance on both what to do and how to do it, right from the start. From simple routines for starting new coaching conversations and asking great questions, to how you can practice letting your mind go quiet. You’ll also find examples of potential coaching situations and sample dialogue so that you get a clear picture of what’s important during coaching conversations. Step by step exercises will help you practice and improve your skills – during coaching sessions or before you even start. It’s the definitive guide that no coach will want to be without. See these enthusiastic reviews from UK readers at Amazon.co.uk

Synopsis: This edition includes additional chapters on incorporating meaning and purpose into work, into goal-setting, and a spiritual approach to coaching, together with a final section on "Coaching the Organizations' Culture". Adopted by many of the world's major corporations, this work also argues for using questions, rather than instructions and commands, and following the GROW sequence - Goals, Reality, Options, Will - to generate prompt action and peak performance. It explores the dynamics of team development and it positions coaching as the essential team leadership skill. (amazon.co.uk) Reviewed at Amazon.co.uk

Leading High Impact Teams:
The Coach Approach to Peak Performance
Cynder Niemela

Book Description: In today's work world, a leader capable of galvanizing a team to produce superlative results is invaluable. This book shows new team leaders the way to avoid costly trial-and-error mistakes. It inspires seasoned team leaders to leverage the "Coach Approach" to make their team experiences lighter, more synergistic and infinitely more productive. Full of practical, step-by-step activities, real life stories and anecdotes to quickly apply, you'll learn what it takes to lead or coach a team to high impact. (Amazon.co.uk)

The Complete Guide to Coaching at Work
Suzanne Skiffington, Perry Zeus

Synopsis: This reference explains the nature of coaching and provides a step-by-step blueprint for successful coaching methods, models and tools. The book also contains case studies and insights into how to enhance personal and organizational effectiveness, performance and growth. (Amazon.co.uk)

Whale Done:
The Power Of Positive Relationships
Ken Blanchard, Thad Lacinak, Chuck Tompkins, Jim Ballard

Synopsis: What do your people at work and your spouse and kids at home have in common with a five-ton killer whale? This work explains that both whales and people perform better when you accentuate the positive. It shows how using the techniques of animal trainers - specifically those responsible for the killer whales of SeaWorld - can supercharge your effectiveness at work and at home. It explains the difference between "GOTcha" (catching people doing things wrong) and "Whale Done!" (catching people doing things right). (Amazon.co.uk)

A lovely book. If you have had anything to do with counselling you will identify with the characters and think "oh that's why I'm this way" Beautifully written and a clever way to take the dryness out of the subject and show how good counselling can have a really life changing effect. (Extract from one of many favourable readers' reviews at Amazon.co.uk)

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Synopsis: Successful implementation of a suitable HRD programme is crucial to any organization and to the self-development of its managers and employees. The book takes the reader through the broad range of HRD practices and strategies in use today. This fully updated third edition has been designed and written to provide the very latest expert advice for both students and managers. Each chapter conforms to the following set structure, designed to raise issues for consideration and research: the main chapter teaching; reader 'activities' section; global case studies section; summaries containing questions and exercises; and a final references section. (amazon.co.uk) More details

Creating a Training and Development Strategy (Training Essentials)
Andrew Mayo

Synopsis: This text looks at how human resource development professionals can forge strong links between business and development goals to create a successful strategic framework. (Amazon.co.uk)

Training for Impact:
How to Link Training to Business Needs and Measure the Results
Dana Gaines Robinson, James C. Robinson

Synopsis: This book presents a straightforward 12-step approach to results-oriented training that links training courses directly to important business needs, problems and opportunities. The authors explain how human resource development professionals can develop collaborative "client-consultant" relationships with line managers - and then make the relationships yield better management support for training efforts. Review: "This is a timely book that provides training and development professionals with practical hands-on tools to document the contributions of their training efforts. I predict that this book will serve as THE handbook for future tracking and cost justification of training and development efforts." Gary Martini, president of Martini and Associates, Human Resource Consultants. More reviews

Also see TRANSFER OF LEARNING for more books on this key subject.