Leadership Without Silver Bullets 2nd Edition Launched!

Leading Through Trust Series: Relationships

September 12, 2019

Leading Through Trust Series: RelationshipsHow do we build…

Is Your Leadership Style Helping or Hurting Team Performance?

May 8, 2025

Is Your Leadership Style Helping or Hurting Team Performance?Leadership…

High Performance Teams

Get instant feedback by rating the seven elements that make teams high performing, thinking about the normal work team you interact with most often

It has been six years since the first edition of Leadership Without Silver Bullets was published. So, I’m very excited to announce Edition 2 is now available!

Why did I write the book in the first place?

Many people—whether relatively new to leadership or with decades of management experience— have provided feedback that the book challenged many of their fundamental beliefs about what it means to be a leader in an organisational or community context. And that’s exactly why I wrote the book in the first place. For too long we have endured rehashed, stale theories on a subject that, let’s face it, has been done to death. We hear and read about leadership in popular press, traditional media, social media, schools, sporting clubs and politics. So, it may be a bold claim when I say that the book will help you think about leadership in a very different way, and that there is a very good chance you will actually be a different leader as a result. But after six years and several thousand people having read the first edition, I can say with some confidence that this is in fact true for many who take the time to read the book in its entirety.

Why a second edition?

While I believe the principles in the book are enduring, I felt it was time for a refresh – but in more ways than one. Yes, it has a new cover, formatting and diagrams, but also the research and data cited have been updated. There is also lots of new material. Such is the demand for us to speak, consult and coach on ‘influencing without authority’, that a whole chapter has been dedicated to this topic. It seems that in modern organisations, the ability to get people to do what you want them to do in service of a greater goal or objective isn’t as easy as it used to be.

A bit about the writing process

Because edition two was much more than just a cosmetic update, I think writing edition 2 took about the same amount of time as the first edition six years ago! I don’t know about you, but I find writing an immensely rewarding and frustrating process at the same time. For me at least, it was littered with waves of excitement as a passage came together nicely while at other times the opposite was true. I think the lesson for me is that perseverance really does pay. It just doesn’t always feel like it at the time. Once it’s done and dusted though, the overall process is very gratifying. If you’re interested in getting a copy, please click on this link Leadership Without Silver Bullets to secure your copy! Happy reading, and I wish you the very best. Regards, Phil