Summerfield - Loving leadership : 8 powerful techniques that so many leaders miss

Loving Leadership

First published in 2016 by

Panoma Press Ltd

48 St Vincent Drive, St Albans, Herts, AL1 5SJ, UK

www.panomapress.com

Book design and layout by Neil Coe.

Printed on acid-free paper from managed forests.

ISBN 978-1-784520-83-0

The right of Richard Summerfield to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright holders written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers.

This book is available online and in bookstores.

Copyright 2015 Richard Summerfield

Richards book reflects his own highly engaging, inspiring, committed and honest approach to leading others. The eight considerations when read with your own experiences to the fore provide every reader with a chance to build a personal road map out of any dilemmas, people and organisation issues being faced by looking at themselves first. Richard has succeeded in making a very pragmatic and readable approach work, and with his contributors he has delivered a splendid compendium of leadership insight.

Neville Pritchard, CEO of HR in Flow Ltd

Richards book pinpoints a global shift in leadership style that is rapidly becoming a key differentiator of organisational success whereby showing genuine care for others through selfless behaviours is no longer a nice to have or something to be worked on when you have time, it is fast becoming a business imperative for any great leader of the present or future.

Jon Lavelle, International Leadership & Negotiation Skills Trainer

Life and leadership is a continual learning journey. Regardless of your experience as a leader this book really helps you to take an objective look at your own strengths and areas of development. Some great, simple and straightforward ideas to help you create a happy, engaged and productive working environment and become a stronger, well-balanced leader.

Anna Blackburn, CEO of Beaverbrooks the Jewellers

My big passion is to create a better working environment for everyone, thereby giving people a greater chance of feeling happy, valued, giving their best, and reaching their full potential. This theme is at the core of the book, which I think will appeal to four main types of people:

1. Industry leaders of any type who want to be more effective and inspiring in their roles;

2. Managers who are aspiring to be future leaders and want to practise some great habits;

3. Academics and HR practitioners looking for powerful tools and excellent leadership theories;

4. People who simply want to create better working lives for themselves and/or others.

Loving Leadership carries a deliberate double meaning its for people who love leadership, and also a framework for leading with love. As you will see in the book, when people truly love to lead, and focus on leading with love, you have an unbeatable combination for inspiring others.

There are some excellent leadership theories based on academic research, but this book is based on first hand corporate reality (with scars to prove it!) from nearly 20 years of personal experience and observation of what works and what doesnt.

Furthermore, having started as very much a personal mission, this book has ended up being a powerful collaboration, augmented with contributions from nearly 30 of the most influential and trusted professionals that I have had the pleasure of meeting, networking with and partnering throughout my career. I am extremely lucky to have their generously shared wisdom included in every chapter, and this extra dimension to the material also sets the book apart, as it is validated and endorsed by some of the highest calibre people in the industry.

A quick summary of my background born and bred in Berkshire near the banks of the River Thames, I went on to graduate from Durham University with a First Class Honours in Biology & Psychology in 1996. My first job was on the Barclays Graduate Programme (well, more accurately, processing cheques in the Machine Room of a busy branch in Reading). Since then, I have worked as an HR professional for five companies across banking, insurance, professional services and IT/telecoms sectors, all of which has given me depth and breadth in every aspect of leadership. I love my career choice as an HR leader, Board Member and Company Ambassador, and have intently observed things that work well in the field of leadership and people management over the years.

I believe that leadership is at its most powerful when robust theory is partnered with hands-on experience, but I would be cautious about using one without the other. To put this into a business context, seeking advice from academic sources can be very helpful when facing organisational issues and challenges, but its value can be limited unless the advice has real life experience to back it up. For example, would you risk your first bungee jump being harnessed and pushed over a bridge by someone who had read books on bungee jumping, interviewed people who had bungee jumped, analysed the mathematical data, but had never actually done a bungee jump themselves? Me neither.

Another reason that Loving Leadership is different is that it doesnt (intentionally) cover the need to be commercial, strategic or global. Dont get me wrong, leadership requires a commercial, strategic and global perspective, that goes without saying, but there are plenty of books, courses, TedTalks, podcasts, etc., for that. This book focuses on the things that are very easy to overlook, easy not to reward because theyre thought a bit fluffy/hard to measure, and easy to find reasons not to do. Its the soft stuff. The people-focussed stuff. The emotionally intelligent stuff. The HR stuff.

Ironically, as I will bring to life in this book, ultimate productivity and long-term health of any business is powerfully linked to how every employee feels about their manager and leader, which directly relates to what their manager and leader does (or doesnt do) to make them feel engaged, motivated and valued. Being commercial, strategic and global has very little bearing on this intrinsic feeling, and therefore limits the offer of any additional incremental effort.

Another key challenge this book invites you to consider is that improvement in the field of loving leadership is about a change in mindset much more than focussing on knowledge, experience or process. Why? Because leadership is about choice. Its that simple, and that complex. If you are in a genuine leadership role with clearly defined accountabilities, then you have complete autonomy to choose how to spend your time and what you do. With the exception of some mandatory regular meetings (and there really are not many that are completely mandatory), you control your time. Yes, you, not all the people who send you meeting invites, email you with their own requests/demands, call you, text you or even turn up at your desk.