Why are there so many books on Leadership ?

Have you ever been into a book shop (yes, I know, how retro) or been online to try and find a book on Leadership?

I recently typed in “Leadership” on Amazon Books (there are other online book retailers) and found over 50,000 results for Books : Business, Finance & Law : Management : Management Skills : Leadership. Which one do I choose? Why are there so many?

"Leadership is an incredibly complicated subject, and no one has the definitive “Law of Leadership”. Many will tell you they have, but they haven’t. It is just their reality and is different for everyone. It is a subject with so many different opinions unlike universal laws or truths."

Universal truths such as the Law of Gravity, our parental relationships shape part of us, too much sun causes burns and cancer, negative stress makes people ill, too much sugar will make us put on weight, too much salt is bad for our health, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, daylight always follows dark and so on. There is no law of leadership. Yes, there are certain leadership behavioural traits that most would agree on: Be consistent, be analytical, be approachable, care about people, be a servant, eat last, listen to others, be flexible, be compassionate, always looking for improvement and so on. The list goes on and on and on!

No one has all these traits, so no one is a perfect leader. In my experience the key is to really understand your staff and lead them in a way that suits them and not you. What are the most important needs of each team member? Imagine if you had a user manual for each team member highlighting their true needs. How much easier would if you could help them truly enjoy working for you, their job and their future. Imagine knowing which buttons are the ones that turn them on, how cool would that be?

The good news is this technology does exist; the problem is most don’t know about it. There is a science that really helps engage and retain our staff that uses emotionally objective data.