Helmsmanship

Research shows that you can learn to lead and, if you make the effort, you can practise and polish your leadership skills through further development to near perfection.

Some potential leaders are placed in positions where they unwittingly learn to lead, for example being the firstborn in a family which some people mistakenly think is crucial to leadership.

Just accept that leaders are made, not just born. But remember there is one caveat - you have to want to lead.

Leadership is a key generic skill in the workplace

All sectors require a proportion of employees or volunteers in their sector to know how to lead. For example, research into the engineering sector, shows that almost 100% of professional engineers will find themselves in a leadership demanding role at some point in a career to age 55. The professions as part of their CPD requirements placed on members almost universally demand leadership learning (though very few offer any assistance to obtain that learning).

Industry constantly searches for leaders. Professor J C Larreche of INSEAD over 10 years studied hundreds of companies and found that only strong leadership is what generates continued success; it contributes directly to the bottom line.

Helmsmanship was developed by a leadership expert from a 7 year PhD study in leadership and learning, combined with over 25 years experience as a leadership developer and trainer.

The Helmsmanship syllabus is the result of years of incubation, developing through 15 years experience with the direction of a management diploma, PhD level studies over 7 years (the literature review with 649 references available at Helmsmanship Level 7 independently described as ‘outstanding’) and broad experience in business, in volunteer organisations and the Services. 

The syllabus content arises from a distillation of the leadership literature. The learning application itself and methods derive from a study of learning needs analysis and marketing communications application. The latter was observed as a proven way of communicating ‘learning’ - equivalent to the communications used by marketers to persuade people to take interest, act and then purchase products and services.