Is it time to refresh and renew your leadership skills?
I’m reading ‘Bad Bosses Ruin Lives’ by Debra Corey and Ken Corey. I’m not reading it so I can tell people they’re doing it wrong or point out their weaknesses. I’m reading it to keep my hand in on leadership best practice, to pick up some hints and tips, and refresh and renew my leadership skills. It’s part of my personal and professional development.
I’ve long been a believer that people don’t leave bad organisations, they leave bad bosses. If you read my blogs regularly, you’ll have heard me say this many times before!
Did you know there are 10 types of bad bosses? When I read about them in the book, I caught myself identifying the characteristics in some of the leaders who have attended our training programmes. Some, but not all. You don’t have to be a bad leader to develop your skills, in fact it’s often the very best leaders who seek to grow through continuous learning.
Reading ‘Bad Bosses’ also reassured me that the Zest For Life Exceptional Leadership Makes Sense development programme is relevant, up-to-date, and enables leaders to be the best version of themselves.
How do leaders refresh and renew their skills?
It’s too easy to say ‘I don’t have time for personal development’ when you’re in a role leading others. People managers have a responsibility to themselves and their team to grow and improve.
You have a choice: you can sit back and stagnate, keeping the same perspectives and beliefs, or you can prioritise your own development and challenge yourself to become a more effective and efficient leader.
It should come as no surprise that leaders in the second category end up leading high-performing teams.
What learning and development do you have planned for the rest of the year? Almost one quarter of the year has passed, so if you haven’t already planned your learning and development, perhaps now is the time to take action.
Remember, without learning, your skills will stagnate and your perspectives will remain unchallenged. You will keep doing the same things - and achieve the same results.
How do you develop your skills as a leader?
Here’s a story…
Zest for Life has been delivering Exceptional Leadership Makes Sense programme to groups at one organisation for several years. When the business appointed a new General Manager, I notice that person’s name appeared on the delegate list for the next intake.
I was delighted.
Despite clearly being recruited for their leadership qualities and experience, the General Manager told me they wanted to attend the training session for two reasons:
To learn something new or refresh their memory of things they had forgotten.
To understand what leaders were learning and put measures in place to ensure they were able to translate their learning into action.
This was music to my ears! What a way to maximise your organisation’s investment in people and set your team up for success. That General Manager will go far.
Spring into becoming an even better leader
The aim of our leadership development programme is to guide leaders to become more effective, and to help them support, inspire and retain talented people in their team who love the work they do, and do it well. Our programme creates high-performing teams that deliver exceptional results.
“You always learn something to take away and put into practice to improve. It might be a reminder. However, it all helps us to become better leaders.”
- Feedback from an experienced leader and learning and development specialist after attending Exceptional Leadership Makes Sense
Set your intention to grow, refresh and renew your leadership skills
We’re offering an opportunity for you to take six days to stop, think, and become a more effective and efficient leader. Your six days of learning and development are spread over three months, giving you time to put your new skills into practice and start seeing results.
Before now, this learning has only been available to groups within a single organisation. For 2025, we’re delighted to open it up to new, experienced or aspiring leaders in small and medium-sized businesses across Cheshire, Merseyside and Manchester.
Our open leadership programme is practical, fun and thought-provoking training delivered over six full days between April and June 2025. It starts on 10th April 2025 at The Riddling Rack in Newton-le-Willows and places are available at a special introductory price of £850+VAT.
Book your place here or download the pdf for full course information.
Training your people well gives them the tools to achieve high performance and deliver impact and results for their team and organisation. The Zest for Life Exceptional Leadership Makes Sense programme sets people up for success. Why wouldn’t you want those kind of results for your business?
Do you have questions the ZFL open leadership programme? Book a Tell me More chat with Sally here to get the lowdown.