Publisher's Synopsis
Leadership is complex. Too many models of leadership are not helping by being themselves complex and hard to remember. In addition, many of those models claiming to guide leaders are ignorant of the utmost vital aspect for any one leader: their context. A specific situation, time, industry, technology, etc., that one person finds themselves in dictates successful leadership behaviours. However, there is a core of leadership behaviours which are relevant to everyone at all levels and regardless of context helps to become a superior leader.
David Whitehead's new book "Leadership is SEXY, Management is NOT" takes us through history and contemporary examples to draw out lessons pertinent for us all. The SEXY leadership model reduces leading to a core needed by everyone regardless of context that focuses on Strategy or story that you are leading people to delivering; recognises that leading means motivating and developing Employees to deliver on that common strategy and its goals; ensuring eXecution is happening and being measured; finally, not forgetting to develop Your own skills as a leader. None of us exist in an-unchanging business vacuum. New processes, methods and ideas circulate the business world faster than ever. Everyone has to improve or change their own skill base. Whitehead's book provides a wide range of tools that each of us can select from to improve our leadership skills.In a wide-ranging book that takes in neurology research, ancient classical philosophy and current thinking about distractions. Whitehead extracts recommendations and tools that are actionable. His focus is on simplifying a complexity of modern leadership and extracting core lessons to implement. Whitehead also looks at some orthodox tools like SMART and shows how to enhance them. He introduces a feedback model called ASK that is simple to use and yet drives higher personal performance. He also looks at costs to business of poor leadership and how we each can assess potential impact of poor leaders in our own business. Whitehead reviews some poor leadership examples and what went wrong. He also examines some examples of contemporary leaders who are loved by their people and how we might learn from them to better engage our own teams. Included in the book are hundreds of references that allow detailed follow up on specific topics.One chapter provides a helpful breakdown of how to plan your week and allocate time to core elements of the SEXY leadership model. That ensures your reputation as a leader improves and your team delivers higher performance. He has some radical suggestions for how to focus better on delivering the actions that matter to business. Whitehead's focus is on behaviours. Ultimately, he says this is the only thing that matters: taking action to change the way you work. Knowing is not same as doing. He advocates most strongly that leaders are made, not born, and that making needs action and reflection on the results to draw out lessons. Whitehead provides a proven set of tools that will make you not just a better leader but a better person. However, you need to take action. Your first action is to read his book.
