Leadership Training
Leadership Training
Lou Russell, Elsevier, 2006
Leadership Training is part of the Trainer’s Workshop series and promises a practical, hands-on “road map” to help to develop competencies. It is a vibrant and useful means of improving leadership skills.
The pack consists of 11 chapters, photocopiable hand-outs, instruments and tools, and a CD-ROM. The book opens by explaining how to use the book effectively and closes with all the resources, including explaining how to use the CD-ROM (a nice little touch – many texts bung in a disk but do not really integrate it into the main text.) In between, the workbook focuses on ten leadership competencies, which include self-awareness, resiliency, coping with change and communication skills.
Rather than then devoting a chapter to each competency, once these competencies are explained, each subsequent chapter covers a practical program-based approach to leadership training. For example, there is a chapter outlining a one-hour program, another offering a half-day program, another outlining a more in-depth full-day program. Help is provided in selecting the appropriate program based on its intended purpose (for example, simply explaining the ten competencies could be done in an hour program whereas focusing on one specific competency in more detail could be covered in a half-day program) and numbers of participants (some are more suitable for smaller groups of 15-20 while others could be used with larger groups of 50+).
The programs include everything from a detailed timetable breakdown to all slides and hand-outs. Some programs can be customised and advice is given on how to achieve this.
The material targets senior and middle managers, project managers or anyone who wishes to develop his or her own leadership skills or those of others. The text is beautifully presented, with a range of icons to illustrate various features of each exercise (for example, a CD icon indicates that there are accompanying materials on the CD, a handout icon indicates that there are accompanying handouts.) This makes the material easy to follow and easy to use,while the exercises and assessment tools are clear and useful.
Overall, Leadership Training is an excellent resource for developing leaders.
Reviewed by Sandi Mann, Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
A version of this review was originally published in Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Vol. 27 No. 7, 2006
