What makes a great leader? Is it even definable?

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a great leader" President John Quincy Adams

If you asked 100 people what the most important leadership skill is, you would no doubt get 100 different answers.

This book covers the first 5 of my 'Top Ten Leadership Skills, which have been chosen after careful consideration of:

- Leadership and management theory, models and philosophy

- My experiences as a leader and team member

-Questionnaires and surveys

-Those skills which are practical and transformational in nature

I hope you will take the skills in this book and make them your own, in order to become an inspirational, motivational and transformational leader.

This book concentrates on leadership skills as being transformational and inspirational in nature. This is not to say that managers do not have these skills and indeed I am not making that distinction. Managers are often thought of in terms of following procedure and ‘getting the job done’ with less concern for staff development and needs. But, as far as this book goes the term ‘leader’ also refers to the ‘manager’. (For a more detailed explanation of managers vs. leaders please see the book ‘The Skills, Models and Philosophies of Leadership)

Introduction

1. Act Assertively
   1. Assertive, Aggressive and Submissive
   2. Thomas Kilmann Inventory (TKI)
   3. Transactional Analysis (TA)
   4. Fogging
2. Communication
   1. Verbal
   2. Open questioning
   3. Closed questioning
   4. Active listening
   5. Non verbal
   6. Written
   7. Email
   8. Intrapersonal
   9. Barriers
3. (Critical) Reflective Learning
   1. Argyris and Schon – single and double loop learning (1978)
   2. Gibbs Reflective Model / Reflective Cycle (1988)
   3. John’s (1995) Reflective Model (Model of Structured Reflection)
   4. Kolb’s Reflective Model (1984)
   5. Rolfe’s Reflective Model (2001)
   6. Summary of Reflective Learning
4. Feedback – Giving & Receiving
   1. Why should you give feedback?
   2. Main types of feedback
   3. Good Practice Guidelines
   4. BEER
   5. Receiving Feedback
   6. Feedback Summary
5. Forward Thinking / Strategic Planning
   1. Where are we now? – the current state
   2. Where do we want to be – the desired state
   3. How will we get there? – the strategic plan
6. Conclusions / Summary
7. References