18th November 2021
The Reading for Leading project was born as part of the company vision of empowering our team with innovative tools and projects to support their growth at a personal and professional level.
An effective leader of a team has a variety of traits and characteristics that encourage team members to follow them. Team leaders naturally possess certain qualities, such as compassion and integrity; other leadership skills can be learned through formal training and experience. Being an effective leader can instil confidence in the team as well as contribute to the growth of the department through improved team productivity.
Leadership is vital in the workplace, and as part of the Reading for Leading project, pbm promotes the way in how employees can develop their leadership skills. As an initiative of Gary Cane pbm CEO, The Reading for Leading project was born to develop the Head of Departments (HOD) leadership skills, encouraging new ways of thinking and new ideas to experiment among other teams.
What is the process of this project?
The company provides books focused on leadership to help with team development, and weekly the HOD team gathered to discuss how they are getting on and what they liked/didn’t like or learnings. Once the book is finished, each member discussed a full summary and then switched books to do the process again.
The team allocates a couple of months to read the books, and weekly catch ups take place to discuss what they have read, if they have tried anything with their teams, what had and hadn’t worked, and anything they need help with.
The books
They all centred around leadership but had quite varying content. Some examples are “Think Again”, “The happiness advantage”, “How to win friends and influence people” or The promises of giants.”
These are the comments from some of the Reading for Leading project’s participants:
“My learnings from the book Think Again enabled me to open up new ways of thinking and not get stuck in a rut. I learnt we always have a choice and not to be narrow-minded. Passions are often developed and not discovered; these will grow as we gain momentum and mastery. It’s vitally important to look for purpose in our actions as opposed to joy; this will follow. I am now conscious of these new ways of thinking and actively trying to implement them throughout life.” Commented Amelia Mardle – Operations Supervisor- at pbm
“My main takeaway from the book is how I view happiness and success. It has changed my point of view, and now, instead of chasing success thinking happiness is over the horizon, I now focus on happiness knowing that success is to follow. I now know the importance of a positive mindset and the impact this can have not just when it comes to work and quality of performance but in all aspects of life. I am now more aware of the impact that words can have and look to positively encourage and support my team, knowing now that this can have the biggest impact of them all.” Lucy Greene- Head of Finance at pbm. commented about her book “The happiness advantage.”
With the Leading for Reading project, pbm looks to enhance team leadership skills and get the best out of their overall teams.
