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When it comes to training staff, many businesses approach the process similar to older, amateur sportsmen, when in fact they should emulate the sports training of their youth. Let me explain.

My physiotherapist told me several weeks ago ‘This is an old man’s injury’ after tearing my calf muscle after a game of basketball. After questioning my training (and having to get over the fact that I am now old), we discovered that my once a week game, accompanied with no training and hardly any warm-up, was downright dangerous to my health. This is a situation i would never have contemplated as a teenager, with judo and tennis coaches ensuring I practised with their ‘no train, no game’ credo in mind.

They say it is better to ‘park’ an emotional blog until you can re-read what you have done and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning. Well, I have done that, and I am still angry and annoyed.

In a recent edition of Leading Company, David James asked the question ‘Do Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits stack up’.

My response, given the vast number of businesses and managers I have worked with is: absolutely!

For those that don’t know, Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold more than 25 million copies with its teachings quoted by Managers and corporate trainers (including myself) often.

Mention customer service in a conversation and I guarantee you will hear comments such as these:

‘Store ## needs better customer service!’ 

‘The people that work at Store ## are so rude / ignorant / self-absorbed, they had no idea how to provide customer service.’

‘The customer service of at store / restaurant / business ## is terrible!’

The most effective way to manage change is to create it.

The true meaning of leading by example.

Few leaders have expressed true leadership better than Mahatma Gandhi – leading a people through non-violent protest to achieve what most of his contemporaries only dreamed of.

For me, this has been the most contentious quote so far.

You can tell your people why they need to do something, you must tell them when and what – but there is no need to tell them how – more often than not they can work it out for themselves.

The true test of a great leader is what they leave behind; not in achievements, awards or structures, but people. Developing the leaders beneath them is the most important role any leader can have.

Management training and leadership experts often ask leaders to ‘lead by example’ with their staff. That first implies that leaders must do what they want their people to do, but it is much more than that.

Leadership is often about balance, and this quote nails it on the head.

Most new leaders want to impress their staff and Managers alike by tackling anything and everything they can – impressive to start with but tiring for all over time. The good managers and leaders learn to delegate, and the better few learn to pick good people (men or women – the quote is a little dated).