Most leadership books try to answer the question what is good leadership? This book is different. It starts with the question: How can people learn to lead? The Leadership Skills Handbook identifies the cores skills leaders need to develop. Each skill is placed in context to help readers think about how they should be used. It also takes a new approach: there is space for recording notes and real life examples of skills in action, so that readers can develop their own unique formula for success. With this in mind, the handbook can become a personal leadership coach, each chapter to be consulted when the need arises. A skills-based book, it reveals how to be a practical leader, but it also looks at what to do when things go wrong; how to deal with conflict, adversity and difficult people. Ideal leadership is always inferior to practical leadership, and The Leadership Skills Handbook helps anyone to put the theory into practice. For use as an active tool, it can become a personal guide and coach on the road to leadership. It is the leadership book for leaders who live in the real world.