Our research

Retail 2012: Why leadership matters?

There’s been plenty of press on the current state of the retail sector. The casualties, the acquisitions, the shrinking estates, the surprise executive appointments, the growth of multi channel retailers; all in light of the current economic climate and the changes in consumer behaviour. There’s no doubt about it, times are tough; however even in these tough times great opportunities exist for retailers.

Leading in lean times

You know the world is changing rapidly, and it’s possible your organisation needs to do some things differently to survive and prosper. So where do you start? Continually reinventing the organisation is a challenge that will never go away; certainly not now. This article describes our approach to leadership development, organisation development and leading change in challenging times and the models we use.

Keywords: rethinking your business, adding value, bespoke development

Leadership: Results beyond the ordinary

Ask a hundred people in a room to write down in a couple of words or phrases what they think is the essence of leadership and they write down all sorts of things. So what does leadership mean to us at CEL? This paper, written in collaboration with Professor Gerard Egan, gives an overview of our thinking on leadership and management.

Keywords: results, leadership versus management, leaders as change agents

Management in education: Towards professional leadership

This report focuses on evaluating our work in developing an educational leadership training framework in the Czech Republic. This evaluation was sponsored by the British Council and details the events of our workshops, analyses the contributions of the participants and draws conclusions about what can make international collaborations of this kind in the area of leadership development effective.

Keywords: legislative framework and leadership development, the collaboration process

Selecting and developing leadership trainers

Leadership development relies on the premise that learning should move beyond cognitive understanding to a change in behaviour. It should offer the possibility of growth and development that can make a real difference to how leaders perform in their role. If leadership development is to embody this possibility, then selecting and developing leadership trainers or facilitators is critical. We outline in this paper all the areas we consider in the selection and development process to ensure real change happens through our leadership development offer.

Keywords: facilitation skills, personal development, selection and development

Our research strategy

Our research in the areas of leadership and management draws on a variety of disciplines. It focuses on organisational learning for individual professionals to organisational renewal and business effectiveness. This paper provides the full detail of our research strategy.

Keywords: organisational learning, leadership development, action research.