Leadership, teams in the work-place and success in business...
The first thing that caught my
attention with this book is how it is presented, a quick flick through the book
suggests it is easy to read, and it is. But don’t think this book is
lightweight in content. It is jam packed with lots of information and is
written in a style that makes it easy to understand. Gihan is a storyteller and
through the various stories he shares, he makes the points with ease and intelligence. I also really like his use of imagery to
paint pictures – all very clever. These images make it very easy to grasp the
key concepts and to put each of the concepts into action. It also helps you to
remember them when you are transferring the learning to yourself and others.
The book is well structured –
three key themes, each with three sections:
Step Up – focuses on you, your
personal skills in particular your productivity, presentation skills and your
personal brand. I found this section a
really practical refresher. I reflected on how I was preforming, what were some
things I could do to improve – my email ‘in box’ being a case in point and also
how I could give more effective presentations. I really liked how Gihan has set
out 5 levels at which you can deliver a message. I found this particularly
useful for a recent Ignite presentation I gave where I had 5 minutes and for a
fundraising event where I had 10 minutes to get my points across.
Switch On – focuses on the team and
how you can build a team whose members want to be part of it. In a world where
we are all trying to be employers of choice, Gihan offers some ingenious ways
we can support our team members. He helps us to see how we can help them to
become innovators through tapping into their unique skills and experiences and
how we can give them better development opportunities beyond traditional
training courses.
Spread Out – focuses on how you
can reach out to a world, to people to help you achieve you goals. I found this
section of significant importance to how we can and should do business, where
the workplace is no longer defined by the physical place of work but by who the
people are that work together to achieve an outcome. Gihan introduces the
reader to so many possibilities for getting work done differently - whether
that be permanent or temporary staff based in the same location, telecommuters
who help deal with some of the inefficiencies of working in an office. He then
invites us to consider how we can make partnerships work and lastly we are
taught how to work with our natural communities to benefit civil society.
This is much more than a book of
well-expressed ideas. It is also highly practical, providing relevant examples
and excellent exercises for readers wishing to engage in immediate application.
I firmly believe that this book will support those people committed to
improving the quality of their leadership, teams and business.