Introducing my book
'The Ten Toughest
Leadership
Problems and How To
SOLVE Them'. Coming in Autumn 2025
In my 20-plus years of coaching and consulting leaders, I’ve noticed that leaders at all levels face the same sorts of problems, over and over again! Engaging staff, fixing conflict, being personally effective, being a strong decision maker, and leading change are just some of the areas that leaders have problems with, whether they’re CEO or a middle manager, or a team leader.
But not every leader has access to a coach or consultant each time they face a problem. Instead, they need a tried-and-tested method of solving their problems for themselves. This is where this book can help, through its practical framework for solving leadership problems. Imagine it as a coach in your pocket, that can help you navigate your toughest leadership challenges.
Each chapter features:
My ‘SOLVE’ framework for effective leadership
Each of the ten problem chapters is based around my 5-stage leadership problem solving model:
- State the problem: Learn to summarise all the complexity in a few manageable sentences.
- Open the box: Unpack your problem, figuring out what’s going on and why. Learn how to gather the right information to feel sure that you’ve understood what you’re facing.
- Lay out your solution: Create a solution, based on the problem identified, which neatly fits your context and which is informed by leading-edge research on what’s likely to work.
- Venture forth: Start to take action, applying the plan you’ve made. Learn the pitfalls to watch out for and how to tackle them.
- Elevate your learning: Apply the new knowledge and skills you’ve learnt through your problem solving to other situations and in other ways, to maximise their value.
Practical advice from real leaders who’ve faced the same problems as you!
While writing this book, I interviewed lots of leaders. I wanted them to share their problems, solutions and advice with me, so I could share them with you.
‘Fit the context’ sections
These help you to explore the problem from your unique context, and help you to tackle situations which don’t necessarily fit the mould.
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