Nothing prepared me for all the prickly engagements I faced as a leader, such as the time a direct report challenged me in front of the team telling me they don’t like me and the first time I had to performance rate a team member and they disagreed with everything I said. There was also the time when a team member shouted back at me in a team meeting as they felt I was victimizing them.

The training and preparation I had in leadership was mainly focused on the operational components of the role such as a “to do list” and a “tick box” exercise that I met the compliance training on what the role entails. I also read a couple of books that gave me strategies to execute, however all these things never got up close and personal to help me understand what to do as a leader in the work place.

This led me to the conclusion that there was a need for more to be done to help a leader understand what was really going to happen when they lead people. This is the reason I wrote “The New Manager – How to become a leader in 52 simple steps”. The title plays on the words manager and leader as anyone that is responsible for people will need to do both in order to be truly effective (manage and lead). The fifty two also tries to connect the leader with the 52 weeks there are in the year thus showing that the book encompasses all of what a leader may go through during a calendar year.

The book is jam packed with “true stories” that have happened in the workplace to help the leader understand the likely scenarios they will face. There are also six core themes, these being: how to bond with your team, how to build credibility, how to develop individuals, how to develop the team, how to deal with storms, how to performance rate both the individual and the team as a whole. Every chapter is full of questions to help the leader unpack what their personal views are. The leader should quickly be able to say, yes, I have seen that happen in the work place. It had to be real in order for it to make a difference.

In the book I don’t offer new theories and six easy steps to be the best leader in the company. I do offer practical guidance on how to deal with the numerous challenges you as leader are likely to face.

I do hope that you purchase a copy and that it achieves its intended purpose and that is…… Leaders are primarily there to develop the people they lead. That is the core, the heartbeat of what true leadership is and the more leaders we have that develop the individuals they lead the better and the brighter all our futures will become.

All the best Steven