How to Grow Leaders

How to Grow Leaders is a ground-breaking book which sets the record straight on leadership development, the nature of leadership and how it can be taught. John Adair identifies the seven key principles of leadership development, and answers vital questions on how to select, train and educate leaders at team, operational and strategic leadership levels. He discusses key topics such as:

• the manager as leader
• how people become leaders
• how to manage leadership training
• learning to be a strategic leader
• training team leaders

Effective leadership is clearly a crucial factor in business success. How to Grow Leaders will help you to develop these skills in others, while guiding you on your own personal journey towards excellence as a leader.

• Introduction
• Part 1: Exploring Leadership — A Personal Odyssey
1. The Qualities Approach
• Can leadership qualities be developed?
2. The Group or Functional Approach
• What is the Group or Functional Approach?
• Applying the Group or Functional Approach to training
3. Leaders or managers?
• Discovering the generic role of leader
• Revisiting the Qualities Approach
• The manager as leader
4. The Situational Approach
• What si the Situational Approach?
• The origins of the Situational Approach
• The Socratic tradition: can leadership be learnt?
5. Levels of leadership
• The application of the Three Circles to organizations
• The role of the strategic leader
• Is it possible to transfer as a strategic leader from one organization to another?
• On practical wisdom
• Part 2: How to Grow Leaders — The Seven Principles
• Principle One: Training for leadership
• The most common error
• The most common error
• Training team leaders
• You do not teach the paths of the forest to an old gorilla
• Do 'sheep dips' work?
• How to manage leadership training
• Keypoints
• Principle Two: Selection
• How do people become leaders?
• The principle of election
• Applying the Group or Functional Approach to first-line leadership selection
• Selection — the wider framework
• Keypoints
• Principle Three: Line managers as leadership mentors
• What is a mentor?
• The apprenticeship method
• At least you can say 'goodbye'
• Keypoints
• Principle Four: The chance to lead
• The military analogy
• What can organizations do?
• What constitutes a challenge?
• Fortune favours the prepared mind
• Keypoints
• Principle Five: Education for leadership
• Thinking outside the box
• Schools for leadership
• Growing university leaders
• New opportunities for 'education for leadership'?
• Keypoints
• Principle Six: A strategy for leadership development
• Reviewing the strategy
• Getting the structures right
• What surrounds and infuses a successful strategy is culture
• Keypoints
• Principle Seven: The chief executive
• Learning to be a top strategic leader
• What does a strategic leader have to do?
• Make your presence felt in training for leadership
• Keypoints