LEADing Small Business

Stewart Barnes, Founder and Managing Director, QuoLux Ltd, Steve Kempster, Professor of Leadership Learning and Development, Lancaster University Management School and Sue Smith, Director, Centre for SME Development, University of Central Lancashire, UK

'The top 50 USA corporations lose $50 billion a year through failed strategy implementation, i.e. poor leadership. Without effective leadership, even the most outstanding growth strategies will fail. But whilst no one has succeeded in defining precisely what leadership is, there are nonetheless common elements that this book has brilliantly identified in the context of SMEs. So, the two ingredients of profitable growth are: a robust, customer-centred strategy (I have never known any company go bankrupt because of poor products - they go bankrupt because of a lack of customers); and inspirational leadership. They go hand in hand...They are inseparable. I will recommend this excellent book to all my SME clients.'

• Contents: Preface: Background and Introduction to LEAD 1. The Owner/manager, Leadership and Business Growth 2. Why is Leadership Learning Problematic for Small Business? 3. Leadership Learning 4. Coaching for Growth 5. Becoming a LEAD Delegate and Identity Development 6. Observational Learning 7. Single, Double and Triple-loop Learning 8. Human, Social and Institutional Capitals 9. Self-efficacy of Leading: Theoretical Importance of Exchanges 10. Bird’s Nest and Marbles 11. Reflection and Reflexivity 12. The Learning and the Changes 13. Ambitious Implications Epilogue - Turning LEAD into GOLD to GAIN: Business Alchemy and Work Based Learning References Index