Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable and incredible help and support during the process of writing this book.
Geraldine - Thank you for your incredible support, belief, encouragement, insights, patience and skill. Thanks for continuing to inspire and amaze me. This book belongs to you.
Mum and Dad - Thank you for your continued help, advice, encouragement, support and inspiration.
Chris and Jody Hughes - the greatest mates anyone could ask for. Thanks for your support.
Joseph Hughes - a future legend. Welcome to the gang! Anthony Hughes - Thanks for your continued encouragement and backing. It means a great deal.
Mari Griffin - Thank you for bringing your own unique brand of magic to bear and making the book readable! Gerry Griffin - thanks for your fantastic help and support. Stephen, Sue, Max, Jake, Ben Griffin - Thanks for the help, advice, support and laughs.
Chris Mallaband - the original liver of a life less ordinary. Thanks for your continued advice and backing.
David Manson - Thanks for your genuine help and support and astute advice and counsel. It has been a great help.
Andrew Park, www.cognitivemedia.com - Thank you for your continued support, belief and backing. It is incredible.
Chris Bond and SBCA Accountancy - Many thanks for being a great source of help, support and advice. A true accounting wizard.
Bill Sweetenham - Thank you for your support and advice.
Sir Alex Ferguson - Thank you for sharing some of your wisdom. It is much appreciated.
James Timpson - Thanks for your time, humour and candour. It was invaluable.
Fergus Finlay - I am grateful for your openness and genuine support, which has been incredible.
Kim England - Thanks for your courage and candour. A future spent inspiring others now beckons.
Kevin Sinfield - Thank you for your openness, trust and help. Keep on leading and inspiring others.
Simon Clifford - the first of what will be many books about you. Thanks for your trust, humour and support.
Phil Ince - a great source of help, advice and - above all - friendship. Thanks, mate.
Martin Perry - Thank you for your challenges and wise counsel.
Tony Smith - Thank you for your trust and candour.
Emma Finlay - Thanks for your advice, knowledge and support. I look forward to reading your own story soon. All Liquid Thinkers and Liquid Leaders everywhere - Thanks for the inspiration!
Forza Malaka!
About the author
Damian Hughes is the founder of the LiquidThinker Company, which takes the methods used by great achievers and shows, in easy steps, how you can adopt them into your own life and business in order to achieve your dreams and ambitions. He is the author of Liquid Thinking and The Survival Guide to Change.
Hughes, a former England schoolboy footballer and Manchester United football coach, was a human resources director for Unilever and led a turnaround in performance at the UKs oldest manufacturing site in Port Sunlight before carrying out similar work in Africa and the US.
He now runs his own change management consultancy, LiquidThinker Ltd, helping a wide range of individuals, teams and industries achieve similar employee engagement and success. He also works as sports psychologist for the GB Rugby League team.
Hughes runs a Manchester inner-city youth club, Collyhurst and Moston, which has helped reduce crime and helped many kids find a purpose in their lives, from stopping crime to winning Olympic medals. He was also nominated for the 2007 William Hill Sports book of the year award for his biography of boxing great Sugar Ray Robinson.
His innovative and exciting approach has been praised by Sir Richard Branson, Muhammad Ali, Sir Terry Leahy, Tiger Woods, Jonny Wilkinson and Sir Alex Ferguson.
If you are interested in Damian working with you, contact him at damian@liquidthinker.com or visit his website at www.liquidthinker.com.
Foreword
My Manchester United players have established a reputation for being tough but also for playing fair, which is a discipline that I have worked hard to instil in them as I believe that it is a fundamental requirement to get through life.
Before I got to where I am today, I had to have a beginning and I believe that I had a great upbringing to prepare me for my later years. I have many recollections which I fall back on from my childhood and a lot of them helped to create the foundation of my character and personality as a leader.
Everybody played football and it was always a competitive environment, but this healthy competition created a will to win that encourages real leadership qualities to emerge. This taught me discipline and a loyalty to friends and it was also responsible for the drive and perseverance which you need to be successful, and these traits have never left me, simply because I could not let down those who helped me all those years ago. They invested their time in me, and I believe in fulfilling that sacrifice.
I hope that these reflections help and encourage you to read this book, because Damian has captured many of the important points about what a leader needs to do. The important things to succeed are a real work ethos, discipline, determination and a respect for others.
Good luck.
Sir Alex Ferguson CBE Manager, Manchester United Football Club
Preface
Bill Sweetenham was the National Performance Director for Great Britains swimming team from 2000 to 2007. He managed the Australian swimming team for four Olympic Games and five Commonwealth Games. He was also the head of the Australian Institute of Swimming from the late 1980s until 1994, and was the National Youth Coach for Swimming Australia. He has worked with more than 12 world record holders as part of the national team in Australia. He was voted Australian coach of the year three times, and as National Performance Director in Britain he led the national team to 15 medals at the 2001 and 2003 world championships.
As someone who has trained over 12 world record holders, 40 Olympians and numerous world-class athletes, I have been afforded a unique insight into the mind of exceptional performers; people who have been willing to stand apart from the masses and to pursue their own dreams, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks; people who have made sacrifices to be able to live their own vision of success; and people who have displayed incredible persistence until they have achieved it. In short, people who have stepped up to the plate and taken the lead.
These insights have shown me that these characteristics, which all great leaders possess, can be learned but with just one rule. You must want it enough.
I would encourage you to read Damians book with a mind that is open to challenge and open to new ideas and to think about situations in your life where you can take a lead, whatever your current status or position.
Finally, and this is the most important lesson of all, I would urge you to try them! You will surprise yourself with your true abilities.
Enjoy the book and your own leadership journey.
Bill Sweetenham
Why read this book?