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Getting a Grip on Leadership

By Robyn Pearce and LaVonn Steiner

Does any of this sound familiar?

If you're like many people who find themselves in management or leadership positions, you've had minimal training for your role. You may have been very good at some part of the business, but that doesn't automatically confer leadership brilliance.

What LaVonn and Robyn have found through years of trial and error is the need for a practical 'how-to' guide for manager and leaders - but the shelves are pretty bare.

So how have people learned these skills? What is available?

This book won't solve all your challenges. You will still make mistakes. But now you have an easy reference book with a step-by-step process, and real-life examples to encourage you when hidden alligators snap at your oars and threaten to tip your boat!

The authors haven't spent time debating semantics like the difference between leadership and management. In fact, they’ve chosen to use the terms interchangeably. Some pundits say management first, leadership second. Others vow the reverse. At the end of the day, does it really matter? People just want the simple explanations; they’ve got jobs to do, and they just want to get on and do them to the best of their ability.

Managers and would-be leaders crave for a system; with this book you'll have it in your hands.

So, what’s this system?

There are four essential commonsense components of leadership: four questions to answer. Apart from a few obvious shifts of emphasis, they’re the same common sense basics for individuals in their personal relationships, people running teams within commercial organizations, and those who make a contribution with some form of voluntary service.

Part 1: Foundation – Who are you? To lead others, first know yourself.

Part 2: Vision and Strategy – Where are you and your organization going? Create a plan.

Part 3: Climate – What’s it like to work here? How to build a positive workplace.

Part 4: Synergy – How to work well together

You'll find it very easy and quick to find help in whatever area you're currently challenged by, using the comprehensive index and the key point lists at the end of each chapter and section.

From Chapter 10 Communication is King!
(Just one example to whet your appetite)

In this chapter you’ll consider:


Great leaders create a great climate. They not only understand how to enhance and build their people’s self-esteem (and we’ll share more tips on how in Chapter 11), but they’re also great communicators. They maintain an atmosphere of open communication where colleagues are informed about key issues, listened to, and invited to share their opinions. Great leaders weave both art and science into their communication.

The art of communicating with employees involves mutual respect and openness. A primary function for leaders is to create an expectation of safe, honest two-way communication.

LaVonn’s story

Wilma Snow comes to mind when I think of a positive work climate and a brilliant communicator. In my first job after high school, I worked as an on-the-job-trained laboratory technician in a major clinic. Wilma was our laboratory manager and training instructor. She’d had polio as a child and stood less than five feet tall. But as a leader, Wilma towered. Her patience was remarkable. Her energy, encouragement and clear expectations created a work climate where people learned, worked hard, and had fun. Communication was open and honest. We could ask her questions. We felt appreciated. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Wilma was proud of each of us. She was manager, mentor, and friend. Her encouragement and support of me continued long after I left the clinic.

Wilma's communication skills:

How do you communicate?

Broadly speaking, there are three possible styles - equal, competitive or passive. (The study of transactional analysis, and the book ‘You’re OK, I’m OK’ by Thomas Harris will give you an expansion of this way of looking at communication). As you study the following descriptions, think how you speak to the different people in your life. You’ll find the method you choose for each person holds up a mirror to the way you see yourself in relation to that person.

An equal communicator sees him or herself as equivalent to the other person.

Equal communication is:

A competitive communicator sees him or herself as superior, and the other person as inferior.

Competitive communication is:

A passive communicator sees him or herself as inferior, and the other person as superior. Passive communicating is indirect and manipulative. Hinting, guilt trips, indirect verbal put-downs or back-biting are used to quietly sway others to their way of thinking. It’s hard to know what passive people are thinking and feeling.

Passive communication is:

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