A Manager’s Guide to Leadership By Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell McGraw Hill pound;19.99 The book isn’t about education, but the leadership issues and scenarios it tackles are recognisable. The authors’ key point is that leadership is about doing rather than knowing, so anyone who teaches leadership should concentrate on actions rather than skills and knowledge.
This seems a useful approach, but it does not always produce what you’d expect. For example, the authors advise against too “businesslike” an approach to meetings, and describe a colleague whose meetings ramble on for ages before getting to the agenda (“meeting and greeting 50 minutes, exchanging information 40 minutes, tackling the business agenda 30 minutes”). The preamble, it seems, gets lots of issues out of the way so people are ready to deal with business quickly.
Overall, a readable book that tells you things you can get on and do.
