From Technocrat to Leader: The essence of leadership and the rewards of earning trust and showing care

by Donald Macrae Gordon

Overview

The author focuses on the foundations of leadership — trust and care. All other aspects of successful leadership rely on the application of these fundamentals.
If you are to succeed as a leader your people need to trust you; this trust frees them to accept the care that you as their leader want and need to provide.
The author has woven through the book many stories of the sometimes-difficult lessons he had to learn about leading, plus examples of the joyous and deeply rewarding experiences he has had through being trusted by his people and caring for them.
The book covers in depth how to build trust, and rebuild it if lost. It details behaviours and attitudes that can destroy trust. It lists many ways to show care for your people, and the benefits a leader will derive from showing care.
There is discussion of the particular challenges that technically-trained people face in becoming leaders, and how to overcome these challenges.
Practical exercises at the end of each chapter reinforce the learnings from the chapter and allow the reader to reflect on their own achievements and developmental needs in that particular aspect
of leadership.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780648756118
Publisher:	Silverbird Publishing
Publication date:	12/05/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	675 KB

Table of Contents

Introduction        1
Chapter 1    Technical skills vs. people skills    5
Chapter 2    Leaders and managers    7
Chapter 3    Culture    13
Chapter 4    How formal education affects
the way we learn    19
Chapter 5    The wonder of trust    27
Chapter 6    How to build and maintain trust    43
Chapter 7    Trust and empower your people    93
Chapter 8    What about people who don’t trust you?    101
Chapter 9    Rebuilding trust    103
Chapter 10    The power of resentment    107
Chapter 11    Fear, and how to avoid leading with it    121
Chapter 12    Own your mistakes and make amends    125
Chapter 13    The magic of caring     139
Chapter 14    How to show care    147
Chapter 15    How do you handle people who are
trying to take advantage of you?    195
Chapter 16    Motivation    199
Chapter 17    Lead and manage safety well    203
Chapter 18    Do you need to change?    215
Chapter 19    How you and your company will benefit    219
Appendix I    Evidence for the benefits of
trustworthiness and caring    227
Appendix II    Bureau Gravitas — a case study in caring    237
Appendix III    Sir Ernest Shackleton — a caring hero    245
Bibliography        251

Editorial Reviews

If you have ever been thrust into that difficult situation of having to take on a leadership role for the very first time, and with little understanding of what that role entails, here’s a book that has just come to your rescue.

In From Technocrat to Leader, Donald Gordon explains the difference between technical skills and people skills, and highlights how the ability to build trust, the capacity to develop an effective workplace culture and being able to empower others is central to becoming a great leader.

Whether you are teacher moving into a principalship, a salesperson about to take on the position of sales manager, or even a lawyer who is about become a managing partner, this book will boost your chances of a successful debut in your new role, and will allow you to fast track the development of a range of critical attributes and capabilities which are often neglected by leaders and managers new to their roles.

— Emeritus Professor Gary Martin, CEO of the Australian Institute of Management WA.

Although framed in the context of a technologist assuming a leadership role, this book is highly relevant for all current and aspiring leaders. It hits the mark that so few books on leadership do, and there is something for everyone; from the very readable style to the end of chapter self-reflection exercises. Throughout, the text is replete with personal and historical examples that resonate and bring the issues to life. Not only does Donald Gordon tackle the thorny issue of the difference between management and leadership with aplomb, his emphasis on care and trust as pivotal aspects of true leadership is both incisive and refreshing. This book is a must have for anyone in a leadership role now, or who aspires to be a good leader in the future.

— Michael Pert, AM, author and retired military intelligence officer.

In my studies I read many books on management but none quite like this one. The author, Donald Macrae Gordon provides candid examples of actions he had taken as a manager. Some are great successes others are disasters. For each he provides the behavioural principal involved and a checklist of questions for the reader to apply to their organisation. As I progressed chapter by chapter I could readily identify similar instances I had encountered.

As an Organisational Psychologist I worked with leading world authorities in change management and managed change programs in many of Australia’s leading organisations. Basically my approach was to find out what is wrong, help those involved to fix it and recognise and reward their efforts. It is a self-managed program as is Donald’s and the behavioural principles are the same.

I believe the book provides readers with a great and easy to apply learning experience.

— Frank L. Spencer, BCom. MA-Organisational Psychology, Fellow Aust. Inst. of Managers and Leaders, Fellow Aust. Inst. of Management Consultants.

From the Publisher