The Four Fixations of a Brilliant Leader

In this insightful business fable Alan turns his attention to leadership. Meet Julie-Anne Johnson – head of a division of a large healthcare company. When a colleague is taken ill Julie-Anne steps into a bigger role and discovers a business that is working reasonably well but has become increasingly complacent about external threats. Follow Julie-Anne’s leadership journey and learn about her four fixations:

Fixation #1 – Vision

Fixation #2 – Inspiration

Fixation #3 – Development

Fixation #4 – Action

This highly readable tale delivers great lessons in leadership, and concludes with a simple how-to guide in Part 2, explaining the thinking and practice behind each of the fixations. It is an instantly applicable and hugely powerful toolkit for every manager and HR department looking to get the best out of their people.

The Six Conversations of a Brilliant Manager

A business story for managers (and anyone who has a manager)

Drawing on his own experiences as a manager in industry and over 20 years as a consultant working with managers at every level, Alan Sears has distilled a lifetime of learning into six simple conversational structures to cover every management situation.  A natural storyteller with a great narrative gift, he has crafted a compelling and highly instructive tale which gets its points across in a straight-forward and accessible way.

“A brilliant and valuable new book by one of the UK’s most brilliant thought leaders in the field of management and leadership.” 

Todd Cherches, CEO & Cofounder, BigBlueGumball (New York City)

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“The Six Conversations of a Brilliant Manager is quite simply a brilliant book.”  

Anthony Sheldon, Master Executive Coach and Managing Director Mudita Coaching Ltd

Sam Mitchell’s Story

Sam Mitchell finds himself newly promoted and facing some big challenges straight away.  He has to get his team performing – and quickly.  Sam can see that every member of the team will need to be approached differently if he is going to get the best out of all of them.  Will Sam succeed?  Will he keep his job?  Will Dr Arnold Kramer, the wilful and impatient company founder, give Sam enough time to even start to have an impact?

As Sam’s story unfolds, Sears deftly shows how the right conversation at the right time can work wonders, but only if Sam really thinks each one through from beginning to end. This highly practical guide also contains a simple how-to chapter, breaking down each of the conversations, explaining why and how they work, and when to use them, yielding an instantly-applicable but hugely powerful toolkit for anyone who wants to get the very best out of their people.

Brief yet memorable, this is a page-turning work of business fiction that will provide a blueprint for brilliant management in any environment.

“I recommend this book to new and existing managers who want to be successful and brilliant in their role.”  

Dr. Abi Layton, Research Scientist.

The idea for The Six Conversations of a Brilliant Manager had been with me for a long time before I finally sat down to write it. That’s partly because a busy schedule running a successful consulting business, coaching individuals and delivering workshops meant that my priority was often elsewhere. It is also because it was only in the course of doing all those other things that the concept crystallised over time. Working with leaders and managers from all walks of life, I came to realise that what makes some people way more successful than others is the quality of the conversations they have with others.  What it took me a lot longer to work out is that these high performers know that they need to take a different approach to different conversations – and that the simplest way to do that is to have a different structure for each conversation.

“Every manager will learn something of real value from this book.”

Carrie Bedingfield, Founder, Onefish Twofish