The Complete Guide to Leadership
Version 13

Overview

The very first version of this manual was produced for participants of our Universal Leadership Skills course. Later versions added content based on situations raised by the participants and experience we gained from running the course. Recent years have seen us working on an ongoing basis with a number of Executive Teams and their leaders who, despite different environments and circumstances, face similar challenges. This has often resulted in us developing teach-ins for Executive Events and, over time, these have been expanded, refined and ultimately new content for this manual.

Version 13 sees a major expansion in content with new sections added and all existing sections revised to a greater or lesser extent. Word count isn't a measure of quality but it does illustrate this expansion, from around 48 000 words in Version 12.1 to 70 000 in Version 13.

Below are some of the highlights.

New sections

•	Leading Recruitment, Succession Planning and Leavers
•	Leading Associates and Contractors
•	Leading Volunteers
•	Tips for Newly Appointed Leaders
•	Tips for Chief Executives

Existing sections restructured

Leading your Boss and your Peers has been split into:

•	Following your Boss
•	Working with your Peers

Two existing sections - Leading your Team and Leading the Next Tier Down - have been split to highlight two of the most important practices in the manual. These sections are:

•	Leading your Team
•	Leading your Team - Leader Speaks
•	Leading the Next Tier Down
•	Leading the Next Tier Down - Leadership Forum

Leadership - Background to the Ideas

We have improved and expanded our interpretation of the work of Mary Parker Follett (pages 2.4-2.5).

Leadership and the Sigmoid Curve

This is one of the most used sections of the manual when working with Executive Teams, not least when carrying out strategy development. The entire section has been expanded. Two particular changes to note:

•	The leadership practices for Growth have been split into Early Growth and Later Growth (page 3.3)
•	Leadership practices for Topped Out (as opposed to Topping Out) have been added (page 3.6)

Leadership and Motivation

There is new content on team versus individual bonuses (pages 4.4-4.5).

Leading Individuals

Principle 4 - Good people (page 8.3) and Practice 7 - Watch out for and deal with Special Causes (page 8.8) are new.

Leading your Team

The 14 Attributes of an Effective Team have become the 15 Attributes of an Effective Team, the addition being: A sensible name which reflects what the team is there to do (page 9.3).

The content on Developmental Stages has been expanded with a particular emphasis on tips (pages 9.4-9.7).

Practice 8 - Beware blind spots (and similar) is new (page 9.8).

The pros and cons of Personality Profiles is new (page 9.17).

Leading through Others

Principle 2 - People like to know what their boss's boss thinks (page 11.2), Practice 5 - Leader's Leader Speaks (page 11.5) and Practice 9 - Chat to people in the levels below (page 11.7) are new.

Following your boss

There are eight new and four revised practices (section 13). Practice 1 - Follow as you would wish to be followed - nicely summarises the philosophy of this section.

Leading Change

Principles 8, 9 and 10, and Practices 2, 7, 8 and 9 are new (section 15).

Leading Reorganisation

Principles 3, 6, 7, 9 and 10, Practices 9 and 11 are new (section 16).

Tips for Organisational design

The principles have been updated and expanded (page 17.2).

When to break up a team or department is new (page 17.4).

Tips 9 and 13 are new (page 17.6).

Organisational Design and the Sigmoid Curve is new (page 17.9).

For those who like a bit of history, The Organisation Chart and its origins has been expanded (pages 17.9-17.11).

Leading Recruitment, Succession Planning and Leavers

This is one of the new sections and the contents include:

•	Thoughts on recruitment
•	Recruitment, old style
•	Recruitment and the Sigmoid Curve
•	Signs you've made a duff appointment
•	Practices for succession planning
•	Thoughts on leading leavers
•	Practices for leading leavers
•	The effects of repeat turnover

Making the Best Use of Staff Survey Results

There is new content on the link to change and reorganisation (page 19.6).

Tips for Being More Strategic

Tips 5 and 11 are new (pages 20.4 and 20.5).

The Corporate Brain

Attributes of an effective Corporate Brain 6 and 10 are new (page 25.3).

The content on Cognitive Tunnelling is new (page 25.4).

Leadership Miscellany

'Be direct' is new (page 29.3).

Full list of sections

1.	Introduction to Leadership
2.	Leadership - Background to the Ideas
3.	Leadership and the Sigmoid Curve
4.	Leadership and Motivation
5.	Leadership and the Giants
6.	Functional Leadership
7.	Flexible Leadership
8.	Leading Individuals
9.	Leading your Team
10.	Leading your Team - Leader Speaks
11.	Leading through Others
12.	Leading People in Remote Locations
13.	Following your Boss
14.	Working with your Peers
15.	Leading Change
16.	Leading Reorganisation
17.	Tips for Organisational Design
18.	Leading Recruitment, Succession Planning and Leavers
19.	Making the Best Use of Staff Survey Results
20.	Tips for Being More Strategic
21.	Leading Associates and Contractors
22.	Leading Volunteers
23.	Tips for Newly Appointed Leaders
24.	Directing versus Managing
25.	The Corporate Brain
26.	Leading the Next Tier Down
27.	Leading the Next Tier Down - Leadership Forum
28.	Tips for Chief Executives
29.	Leadership Miscellany
30.	Ongoing Support from the UIC