“What prompted you to write a book on Leadership?”

This is a question I’m often asked…

The reason I wrote a book on leadership was because I read many books while studying leadership over a number of years. Some were good, some were great, but they didn’t really resonate with me being a mother of six trying to run a small business and an international charity.

I have met many leaders who are just getting on with it, living their lives, sometimes against incredible odds, demonstrating great leadership skills. I wanted to read about that, how leadership impacts our day to day living even when we are not in a managerial position.

Most of the leadership books I read were written by CEO’s of multi-national corporations, spiritual leaders with millions of followers or billionaires with their own jet liners. While I learned a great deal, they were hardly leadership tips for day to day living. I wanted a book that showed me how to live day to day, raising children or running a small business with strong leadership principles.

I am a mother of six children (five of them sons, they taught me a bit about leadership ). I’ve spent a few years on the P & C and in school communities. I am the founder of a charity in Vietnam (www.accv.net.au) that supports about 200 families with blind or seriously ill children living in poverty. I am also the CEO of Vidotto Group and Push! Leadership and Business coaching. So, I have hung around a few different playgrounds in my time and I’ve seen lots of examples of leadership. And the best kind of leadership often comes from the most unexpected of places.

Leadership is not something reserved for those at the top, leadership is everywhere.

When we have self awareness and we develop our own leadership skills, life can be so much easier. I wanted to read that sort of book, but I didn’t quite find it it, so I wrote it myself. All 66,310 words of it.

I must say; I really enjoyed the process. It was a steep learning curve but we have a great team at Push! and they were all involved. We split the book into chapters and circulated it around the office for proof reading and editing, in addition to professional editing and typesetting. I got some great feedback from those who are in the know. They put forward some great suggestions on which real life stories to include in each chapter, which stories read well and which stories fell flat. There’s nothing like genuine feedback. We did this a number of times, twelve drafts all up. It was well worth all the time and effort, we were all very happy with the end result.

22 Leadership Fundamentals; the Door to Success says Push! is a leadership memoir.

Each of the Leadership principles covered (yes, there are 22 of them) is accompanied by a real life story of how leadership is practiced in the real world whether it’s business, raising children, running a family or living life as an impoverished young blind person. Talking of young blind people living in poverty, meeting and working with these inspirational young people has taught me that Leadership has nothing to do with position. It really does come from the self. Self-Leadership is the foundation to successful, authentic leadership and I’ve been privileged to know these young people who can tap into their inner leader and prosper against quite substantial challenges.

22 Leadership Fundamentals; the Door to Success says Push! has been launched and is now available in a number of bookstores around the country. It is also available online.