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The Ten Toughest Leadership Problems: And How to Solve Them
Drawing on decades of in-the-field research and consultancy work, renowned leadership consultant Dr. Katie Best shows how to solve ten of the most common—and complex—leadership problems When leaders receive executive coaching, the results can be powerful. However, coaching isn’t always available in the moment, either because the need is urgent or because the resources aren’t there. That’s when leaders can turn to Dr. Katie Best.
In this book, Best works through ten of the trickiest and most common leadership avoiding burnout, making good decisions, increasing influence, working through cultural issues, improving employee performance, engaging staff, managing teams, implementing strategy, leading change, and handling the new hybrid workplace reality. Drawing on insights from leading research and the real-world experiences of her clients, Best’s SOLVE framework helps leaders find a solution that fits their unique needs and gives them the tools to tackle any other problems they might encounter going forward. Practical and engaging, The Ten Toughest Leadership Problems and How to Solve Them is an essential self-coaching handbook for leaders at any level.
In this book, Best works through ten of the trickiest and most common leadership avoiding burnout, making good decisions, increasing influence, working through cultural issues, improving employee performance, engaging staff, managing teams, implementing strategy, leading change, and handling the new hybrid workplace reality. Drawing on insights from leading research and the real-world experiences of her clients, Best’s SOLVE framework helps leaders find a solution that fits their unique needs and gives them the tools to tackle any other problems they might encounter going forward. Practical and engaging, The Ten Toughest Leadership Problems and How to Solve Them is an essential self-coaching handbook for leaders at any level.
- GenresLeadership
336 pages, Hardcover
Published August 26, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 5, 2025
Dr. Best provides a good framework for analyzing common leadership problems. Though the list is not extensive, many other problems can be categorized with the ten on which she expounds here: personal effectiveness, decision-making, influence, engagement, etc. The framework she lays out is similar to others like OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and other variants, Kepner Tregoe techniques and so on. The author uses SOLVE (S = State the problem…). The framework can be applied to many situations, especially if they follow Dr. Best’s practice of asking open-ended questions about it.
The chapter on Influence may be worth the price of the book alone. How much are we trying to influence others based on our preferred style or ways we want others to approach us?
While I found many of the chapters helpful, I found them to be limited in scope. Decision-making, for example, has other elements and perhaps should start with the question: “Do I even need to make this decision or to whom can I delegate it?” Often we catch ourselves in the trap of telling and selling the decision, which limits engagement, instead of consulting and joining others to provide more input and ownership in the decision. While she talks about discerning the need for quick decisions or the possibility of slowing it down, she refrains from putting that choice in terms of risk (capital, social, competitive, environmental, etc.). Likewise, she deals with trust in another chapter, but not in the engagement chapter and has ignored some other research noting other critical elements: trust, making progress/performance improvements, more autonomy for two. However, though she has not encompassed all the aspects of the ten leadership issues, the author does encourage more learning (E = Elevate your learning).
Too many times, as she has observed, leaders are left to chart their own development path, perhaps with a book here and there, a seminar every year or five, and so on. Dr. Best’s book is practical and provides ongoing guidance with her framework for dealing with leadership problems.
I’m appreciative for the publisher providing an advanced copy.
The chapter on Influence may be worth the price of the book alone. How much are we trying to influence others based on our preferred style or ways we want others to approach us?
While I found many of the chapters helpful, I found them to be limited in scope. Decision-making, for example, has other elements and perhaps should start with the question: “Do I even need to make this decision or to whom can I delegate it?” Often we catch ourselves in the trap of telling and selling the decision, which limits engagement, instead of consulting and joining others to provide more input and ownership in the decision. While she talks about discerning the need for quick decisions or the possibility of slowing it down, she refrains from putting that choice in terms of risk (capital, social, competitive, environmental, etc.). Likewise, she deals with trust in another chapter, but not in the engagement chapter and has ignored some other research noting other critical elements: trust, making progress/performance improvements, more autonomy for two. However, though she has not encompassed all the aspects of the ten leadership issues, the author does encourage more learning (E = Elevate your learning).
Too many times, as she has observed, leaders are left to chart their own development path, perhaps with a book here and there, a seminar every year or five, and so on. Dr. Best’s book is practical and provides ongoing guidance with her framework for dealing with leadership problems.
I’m appreciative for the publisher providing an advanced copy.
Displaying 1 of 1 review