Latest on leadership
Read our latest features and articles on leadership.
From CFO to CEO: the essential leadership skills
- Article
- 22 Apr 2024
Many CEOs have backgrounds in accountancy, but taking the leap from the finance function to the chief executive’s chair requires a much broader skill set.
How to move from a CFO to a CEO mindset
- Article
- 04 Jan 2024
Having a strong financial background is invaluable when becoming a CEO, but you also need the right leadership mindset and skills, says author Ben Renshaw.
Alan Vallance announced as new ICAEW Chief Executive
- Article
- 26 Oct 2023
The chartered accountant and CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute is taking up the ICAEW leadership role in Spring 2024.
Accountants can steer shipping through a sea of megatrends
- Article
- 27 Jul 2023
Accountants will be increasingly vital strategic partners in an industry facing challenges from carbon crackdowns, technology shifts and sanctions, says Costas Constantinou - Global Leader, Shipping, at Moore Global
What do successful ESG leaders look like?
- Article
- 14 Apr 2023
Sustainability challenges call for new styles of leadership. Which attributes differentiate tomorrow’s ESG leaders from the crowd? KPMG partner Dr Muel Kaptein gives us the lowdown.
F-TEN leadership programme: enhancing skills with practical support
- Article
- 13 Mar 2023
Newable’s newly appointed CFO Rob Thompson talks about his experience in the F-TEN leadership programme.
International Women’s Day: ICAEW’s inspirational leaders
- Article
- 07 Mar 2023
Women leading ICAEW discuss the biggest issues facing accountancy and offer their career advice.
How to develop a CEO mindset
- Article
- 18 Nov 2022
For finance professionals in business, the progression from CFO to CEO is a tried and tested route. But no matter where you are in your career, you can forge a CEO mindset on your own, says business coach Anthony Webb.
How CFOs create a fairer future
Read our interviews with CFOs on how their role is changing. Access the CFO fairer future toolkit to help CFOs navigate the changing demands and how to make the most of it.
CFO fairer future toolkit 
Reports
Special Report 72 - The aspiring CFO
- Report
- 2021
A practical, realistic, hands-on and immense learning opportunity of all you need to know to become the CFO
Organisational culture: leadership styles
- Report
- 2021
It is recognised that an effective culture can reduce risk and improve performance of an organisation, and that the success or failure of the culture is greatly influenced by its leaders. This guide, written by Jenny Jones, explores different leadership styles and the impact they can have on organisational culture.
Special report 67: Problem solving
- Report
- 2020
This month’s special report focuses on solving problems of all shapes and sizes in the workplace. Whatever your position in the hierarchy, there are practical hints and tips included to make your day-to-day work easier and more efficient.
Exclusive
Special Report 64: Managing People
- Report
- 2019
- PDF (1,487kb)
Managing people is one of the most important skills needed to successfully navigate your way to the top of the corporate ladder. This report provides practical tips and advice on topics such as team management, dealing with difficult people and the effect of technology on recruitment.
Courageous Leadership
- Report
- 2017
Courage is one of the skills that great leaders are deemed to need and perhaps the most important. This report covers the key areas that leaders might want to focus on.
Exclusive
Special Report 56: Soft skills that FDs need
- Report
- 2017
- PDF (5,953kb)
A special report looking at the soft skills that FDs need to succeed
Leadership (Special report 39)
- Report
- 2012
This special report on leadership has been compiled to point you in the right direction in your leadership search. The authors all firmly support the idea that, although some leaders may be born, many more are made, and the appropriate training and support forms a vital component in this development.
Webinars
Motivating your team: A three-pronged approach
- Webinar
- 19 Mar 2021
This webinar explores three aspects of motivation that need to come together to get the most from your staff.
Leading resilient teams
- Webinar
- 07 Oct 2020
Learn practical tools and techniques to help you manage stress and build a resilience management framework.
Exclusive
Decision making under uncertainty
- Video
- 28 Sep 2020
How to make the most of the different ways in which people make decisions.
How to make the most of your life's work
- Webinar
- 12 Feb 2020
This essential webinar will reveal the twelve proven ways to fast-track your career, and teach you how to learn from your mistakes, kickstart some good habits, kick out some bad ones and make the most of your life’s work.
Learning for your future
- Webinar
- 20 Jan 2020
This webinar will help you change your approach to learning so that you are best placed to have the career and future you want.
Achieve business success
- Webinar
- 21 Oct 2019
This webinar will explore why you need more than technical skills to achieve business success, and what really makes the difference.
Team leadership and management
- Webinar
- 14 Nov 2018
Richard Jenkins talks us though the best approach to adopt and how to work to create effective teams.
Difficult conversations
- Webinar
- 13 Jul 2018
This webinar provides practical tips on how to deal with difficult conversations. It took place on 11 July 2018.
Training courses
Our leadership training courses cover a range of topics including finance, resilience, corporate governance and communication.
Leadership
Leadership skills courses designed to inspire and build high-performing teams to achieve key strategic goals with our CPD training courses.
Leadership Development Programmes
Catering for those significant transitions in your career, these leadership programmes are instrumental to achieving your leadership ambition or fulfilling your succession planning goals.
eBooks
The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.
Exclusive
Financial Times guide to management : how to be a manager who makes a difference and gets results.
- eBook
- 2014
- Anne Francke
- FT Press
A guide to becoming an effective manager, full of practical tips and advice on to the everyday challenges of: Managing yourself; Developing communication skills and emotional intelligence; Managing others; Setting strategic direction; Managing change; Managing money, resources and technology.
Exclusive
Communication strategies for today's managerial leader
- eBook
- 2012
- Deborah Britt Roebuck
- Business Expert Press
Provides the communication principles that are key for managerial leaders.
Exclusive
Effective people management
- eBook
- 2011
- Pat Wellington
- Kogan Page
A short guide to team management and leadership.
Exclusive
Operational leadership
- eBook
- 2010
- Andrew Spanyi
- Business Expert Press
Business leadership from a US perspective.
Exclusive
Boardroom realities: building leaders across your board
- eBook
- 2009
- Jay A. Conger
- Wiley
Looks at building leaders across a board, with the latest trends in board leadership and performance as well as talent management for the board and the C-suite.
Exclusive
Developing leadership talent
- eBook
- 2008
- Andreas Koschan, Mongi A. Abidi
- Pfeiffer
A book for human resource or organization development professionals responsible for designing leadership development and talent management.
Exclusive
Women in business: the changing face of leadership
- eBook
- 2008
- Patricia Werhane, Margaret Posig, Lisa Gundry, Laureal Ofstein, Elizabeth Powell
- Greeenwood
Describes the process of increasing gender diversity in leadership positions.
Exclusive
Extraordinary performance from ordinary people: value creating corporate leadership
- eBook
- 2007
- Shaoming Zou, Daekwan Kim, S. Tamer Cavusgil
- Elsevier
The book looks at four styles of leadership and how they can add value to an organisation.
Terms of use
You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.
Business press
The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
Exclusive
Lead your team to victory: the do's and don'ts of effective group leadership
- Article
- 01 Jan 2024
- Alan Vengel
The author provides several tips for successful group leadership, including mentally separating the group, forming a common ground coalition, making desired results clear, providing rationale for ideas, asking open-ended questions, creating a brainstorming atmosphere, and voting when appropriate. The article also highlights what not to do: such as allowing people to take a fixed position, putting people into likeminded discussion groups, and letting objections sabotage the team.
Exclusive
Move fast and fix things: Questions for Francis Frei
- Article
- 01 Jan 2024
- Karen Christensen
An interview with Francis Frei, co-author of the new book 'Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems'. She discusses the importance of leadership in nurturing a culture of trust, inclusivity, and collaborative problem-solving. The article compares the mottos of Mark Zuckerberg ('Move fast and break things') and the author's preferred mantra ('Move fast and fix things'), highlighting the drawbacks of the former approach. The article concludes by suggesting ways leaders can create a safe and inclusive work culture.
Exclusive
Three key elements of trust for leaders
- Article
- 01 Dec 2023
- Joseph Folkman, Jack Zenger
Based on data from 360-degree assessments of 87,000 leaders, the authors have identified three key elements that are often the foundation for trust towards leaders. By understanding the behaviours that underlie trust, leaders are better able to elevate the level of trust others feel towards them. The authors detail the behaviours leaders should carry out to achieve this.
Exclusive
No longer lonely at the top
- Article
- 01 Nov 2023
- Ben Gose
The hiring of co-CEOs is becoming more common in non-profit organizations due to trends such as a desire for work-life balance and the need for diverse leadership. Shared leadership allows organizations to tap into different skill sets and create a stronger leadership model. While there are potential drawbacks to the co-CEO model, such as slower decision-making and confusion among staff and stakeholders, advocates argue that it promotes better decision-making and demonstrates a commitment to equity and inclusion.
Exclusive
Do you overprepare? Here are 4 ways to curb this perfectionist tendency
- Article
- 01 Sep 2023
- Ellen Taaffe
Perfectionism can become a liability, says Ellen Taaffe, a clinical associate professor of management and organizations and director of women’s leadership programs at the Kellogg School. In this article she emphasizes the need for individuals - especially women - to let go of perfectionism and embrace progress over perfection at work. In an excerpt from her new book, 'The Mirrored Door: Break Through the Hidden Barrier that Locks Successful Women in Place', she offers four tips for moving forward more comfortably with uncertainty and imperfection.
Exclusive
Advancing women in leadership
- Article
- 01 Sep 2023
- Theresa Agovino
An interview with Linkage CEO Jennifer McCollum, who has spent nearly three decades helping women in leadership overcome hurdles. She discusses the major obstacles that keep women from leadership roles, and how they can overcome them.
Exclusive
How to shine at spontaneous speaking when put on the spot
- Article
- 01 Sep 2023
- Matt Abrahams
Mastering the art of spontaneous speaking is important for leaders. Matt Abrahams suggests that anyone can become proficient at this using the right tactics and behaviours. He offers key strategies that include avoiding conventional leadership responses in favour of establishing genuine connections, and prioritizing brevity while delivering clear messages. He also highlights the need to speak authentically without the pressure to be perfect - which means daring to be dull.
Exclusive
Stories from the front lines: Leadership accounts from the globe's top supply chain executives
- Article
- 01 Sep 2023
- Brian Straight
The article highlights the book 'From Source to Sold: Stories of Leadership in Supply Chain', by Radu Palamariu and Knut Alicke, which offers insights from 26 top global supply chain executives on leadership skills and decision-making. One of the questions the book attempts to answer is why relatively few supply chain professionals have become CEOs. The article includes a diagram showing the attributes of the ideal supply chain leader.
Online magazines
These journals are available only to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. To access them, please log in.
Articles and books in the ICAEW Library collection
The collection of the ICAEW Library & Information Service includes a range of articles, books and reports on leadership skills. Use the links below to see what we have available to request in our Library catalogue (Libcat).
Why should anyone be led by you? What it takes to be an authentic leader
- Library book
- 2015
- R.Goffee, G.Jones
- Harvard Business Review Press
The authors show how great leaders essentially act as 'authentic chameleons', consistently displaying their true selves throughout the changes of context that require them to play a variety of roles. They illustrate authentic leadership in action and provide practical advice on how both experienced and aspiring leaders can become more authentic - and more successful.
Act like a leader, think like a leader
- Library book
- 2015
- H.Ibarra
- Harvard Business Review Press
This book "offers advice to help you: redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions; diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a bigger range of stakeholders; and become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar- and possibly outdated- leadership style to evolve."
Game of thrones on business: strategy, morality and leadership lessons from the world's most talked about TV show
- Library book
- 2015
- Tim Phillips, Rebecca Clare
- Oxford: Infinite Ideas Limited
Encouraging their readers to learn through stories, the authors have drawn parallels between Game of Thrones and today's business world. The authors also use examples from the series to breathe life into management theory.
The essential manager: 30 core elements of leadership
- Library book
- 2013
- E.Larkin
- Dublin : Chartered Accountants Ireland
Aims to encourage the reader to reflect upon, and perhaps consider changing, how they currently respond to some common trials and tribulations of managerial life. Divides "the 30 essential building blocks for management success" into three parts: about you; about employees; and about business.
Lean in: women, work and the will to lead
- Library book
- 2013
- S.Sandberg
- W H Allen
Examines why women's progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. Sheryl Sandberg is a former Chief Operating Officer of Facebook/Meta.
Management in 10 words
- Library book
- 2012
- Terry Leahy
- Random House Business
Written by the former CEO of Tesco, this book draws on the author's experience and expertise to pinpoint the ten vital attributes that make successful managers and underlie great organisations. Chapters are headed: truth; loyalty; courage; values; act; balance; simple; lean; compete; and trust.
The essential Drucker: selections from the management works of Peter F.Drucker
- Library book
- 2001
- P.F.Drucker
- Butterworth-Heinemann
An introduction to Peter Drucker's expert writing on management and leadership, containing extracts from his books published between 1974 and 1999.
To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.
You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.
External resources
Acas guide on leadership
- Website
- Acas
Guide from Acas designed to support people with leadership responsibilities at all levels of an organisation. Outlines the essential qualities, actions, considerations and implications associated with leadership using the Acas framework for effective leadership.
Investors in People leadership articles
- Website
- Investors in People
Knowledge base of articles on leadership from Investors in People, covering topics such as motivating and empowering your team, democratic leadership and improving team wellbeing.
Leadership guide
- Website
- Atom Content Marketing
Whether you are the managing director or a shift leader, the way you lead is the single biggest success factor for everyone you work with. This business guide covers leadership at all levels, leadership from the top, communicating the vision, what do leaders do, making decisions, managing the team and knowing yourself.
Leadership in the workplace
- Website
- Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
This factsheet investigates the concept of leadership and how it differs from management, the factors that can influence leadership development, and briefly examines how a principles-based approach to practice can support the development of leadership skills in people professionals.
The Gender, Leadership and Inclusion Centre (GLIC)
- Website
- Cranfield School of Management
The GLIC is a research community which collaborates with industry and produces high quality research in the areas of gender, leadership and inclusion at work. The centre, which is part of Cranfield University's School of Management, is responsible for an annual benchmarking report, The Female FTSE Board Report which has been published since 1999 and includes details of the number of female directors on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards. The website provides information on the work of the centre, its research projects and published research papers.
The role and expectations of a CFO: A global debate on preparing accountants for finance leadership
- Website
- International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)
Discussion paper and selection of resources from IFAC. The paper looks at the changing scope of CFO and finance leadership roles and how accountants can prepare for career progression.
Terms of use
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