Most Leadership books give you simple recipes based on the author’s experience. The problem with this approach is that it takes context out of the equation. What worked for the author won’t necessarily work for you.
Leadership is about behaviour. It is about behaving in a way that generates the best outcome for you, the individuals involved and the organisation. It requires self-awareness, an understanding of the context and good judgement.
This book is built on principles not recipes so you are able to apply them to any situation you find yourself in, regardless of context.
About the book
The Balanced Leader
By Tim McEwan and Roderic Yapp
Leadership is often defined in simple terms. The majority of articles on LinkedIn argue that leadership ‘is all about empowering people’. Whilst I agree with that most of the time, it’s not a rule that applies to every situation.
If you saw someone get hit by a car whilst crossing the road, would you want to be empowered to make the decisions in that situation? You might but chances are you’ll prefer being told what to do by a Police Officer who arrives on the scene and takes control of the situation. Empowering people works well in many situations, but not all of them.
When you ask people to share stories of ‘the best leaders they’ve ever worked for’, they talk about people who support them unconditionally; create an environment of absolute clarity; build strong relationships based on trust, and many other things.
Ultimately, they talk about how the leader behaved so in its simplest terms, leadership is all about behaviour. It is about how you behave and the impact that behaviour has on the people around you.
But all behaviour is based on context.
What’s appropriate on a night out with friends might not be appropriate on a company off-site. That’s why leaders need to be able to understand the context and be able to choose how they behave so that their behaviour generates the best outcome for them, the team and the wider organisation.
‘This raises the bar on leadership thinking, I love it’
Matthew Syed, author of Black Box Thinking
About the authors
The authors are both former Military Officers with operational service in a wide range of theatres.
Since leaving the military, they have been working in the leadership development market helping organisations to develop leaders by changing the way they think and behave.
Tim McEwan
Tim started his career in the British Army, commissioning from Sandhurst. His roles in the Army ranged from counter terrorism operations globally to being appointed Equerry to a member of the British Royal Family.
Tim’s final role in the Army was as a Leadership Instructor at the world renown Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Since leaving the Army, Tim has held numerous leadership positions in business and in 2015 was appointed a Fellow in Management Practice at The University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School.
Roderic Yapp
Roderic Yapp is an executive coach and leadership development specialist. A former Royal Marines Officer, he specialises in developing leaders that operate in highly demanding and competitive sectors.
His experience includes the delivery of leadership development programmes across a multitude of sectors, including Professional Services, Banking, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals and Professional Sport.
Your details will be secure and never passed on. (Privacy Policy)
The Balanced Leader explores what we mean by balance, the spectrums we may need to balance ourselves on daily and some of the foundational skills required to be good at being a balanced leader.
