Kevin Murray is the Chairman of the Good Relations Group, the Public Relations Division of Chime Communications. He was previously the Chairman of Bell Pottinger, one of the UK's leading PR agencies with 20 offices worldwide, including New York and Washington DC. He was previously the Director of Communications for British Airways and is a former national newspaper journalist, magazine publisher and marketing director. He is also the author of The Language of Leaders, published by Kogan Page.

Online Resources: a supplement article from the author

List of figures
ForewordIntroduction: the inspiration gap Part I Leadership in the age of transparency 01 The new leaderConversations drive change
Talk is work
Speed is the new currency of business and leadership
A new kind of leadership is key to prosperity
True communication emerges from your being
Create space for meaningful conversations
Personal connection to organizational goals is critical
Trust by employees for leaders is rising
Line managers need help to improve trust
Earning a trust dividend02 Leadership: the greatest intangible asset of them allPositive emotions drive better performance
Intangible assets demand extraordinary communication skills
Competitive advantage through quality relationships
The first challenge is to understand intangible value
Transparency has changed the nature of leadership
Learn to embrace transparency
Leadership is about trust
The biggest risk is the destruction of relationships

03 The 12 principles of inspiring leadership
communication
The purpose of leadership

Part II The leader within 04 Be yourself better: why passion and conviction are essential to inspiring leaders
Define your purpose
Define your values
Understand your strengths
Understand your weaknesses
Learn from your seminal moments
Map your purpose and your values to those of your organization
Show humanity
Be visible
Speak the truth, respectfully05 The vision thing: how to think about purpose, values and the futureIt's the vision thing that drives you on
Unreasonable belief drives unbelievable success
Rational or emotional?
Purpose and performance
Alignment is the key to success
Really good people need a really good understanding
The seven steps to a vision framework
Bringing emotion into the mix06 Bringing the outside in: when you introduce employees to the people they serve, it unleashes super-performanceIntroduce employees to the people they serve
Use external perspectives to shape internal ones
When the brand promise is seen as corporate jargon
Pass the baton well to win
Video customers on a mobile phone
Think about when you survey customers
Tune in to your customers online
Beware of false data
Why you should love bad news07 Engage through powerful conversations: how to use conversations to drive culture, and why culture delivers goalsThe power of alignment and engagement
What are the drivers of engagement?
Conversations drive change - fact
Is it really just about the pay?
Why culture is a secret weapon
Making the impossible possible
Choice over change, any day of the week
The engagement ladder
The three parts to powerful conversations
What is the ultimate measure of successful conversations?Part III Connecting to the emotions that drive behaviours 08 It's all about them: how to become more effective by being more focused on people and behaviours
How to be audience-centric
The importance of tackling the right problem09 The listening leader: why you need to listen louderNot listening actually turns people off
The benefits of listening
How good are you as a listener?
A seminal moment to do with my own listening
Give people a damn good listening to
The seven essential techniques of great listeners
Listen up, down and all around
How people react to poor listening10 Sending signals: how you inspire - or demotivate - without saying a wordIt is in your behaviours and what you focus on
It is in your consistency
It is in whether you live the values yourself
It is in your responses
It is in your body language
It is in your expectations
It is in your attitude
It is in your appearance
Send signals to yourself
Never forget to recognize, encourage and thank
Conduct signal audits11 Purposeful, persuasive stories: how you can use stories to drive action and shape culture
Head, heart and soul listening
In their heads, the listeners are arguing
Leadership is persuasion
Stories, metaphor and props: the ideal mix
Purposeful stories
What is a purposeful story?
A story to illustrate how stories work
Time for a new story
The structure of a good story
Flavour the dish to appeal to the senses
Where to look for stories
The transformational story
How to tell them well
When to refrain
Narrative or story?
How storytelling changed a CEO's leadership
Stories are the superglue of messagesPart IV The leader outside 12 Use a potent point of view to power your leadership: how to develop a persuasive standpoint to win friends and influence peopleWhat is a point of view?
Only one point of view? Or do you need many?
The toxic effect of not having a point of view
The four essential ingredients of a powerful point of view
A point of view in action
Deconstructing a company's point of view
Turning a point of view into a sales pitch
How a POV powered the purpose of a public sector organization
How a point of view can power a Thought Leadership programme
How a point of view can equip you for the hyper-critical media environment
The persuasive power of an equal but opposite point of view
Facts, emotions and symbols
The three types of argument, and why you should stay in the one about the future
In summary13 Winning in the court of public opinion: why you must always prepare properly for public platformsKnow what you want to achieve
Own your material
Rehearse well and prepare for tough questions
Why your voice and image can be more important than words
The importance of remembering your theme
Twelve ways to make your material more compelling
Pictures, please, if you must use PowerPoint14 When words really matter: why some are simply much more persuasive than others
The power of who, what, where, why, when and how
Why using these words in your headlines will improve readership
Use words that deliver social proof
Take care to find exactly the right word15 Why leaders should embrace social media: the six reasons you should be more engagedWhy leaders won't use social media
Why leaders do use social media
The six reasons you should be more engaged
Why you simply can't ignore it any morePart V Bringing it all together 16 What is your leadership inspiration quotient? How to make the intangible more tangibleHow do workers rate their bosses?
Chapter 2: On relationships and trust...
Chapter 4: On learning to be yourself better...
Chapter 5: On purpose, vision and values...
Chapter 6: On bringing the outside in...
Chapter 7: On engaging through conversation...
Chapter 8: On connecting with your audience...
Chapter 9: On being a better listener...
Chapter 10: On sending signals...
Chapter 11: On telling stories...
Chapter 12: On articulating a powerful point of view...
Chapter 13: On preparing for public platforms...
Chapter 14: On the power of words...
Chapter 15: On social media...
Chapter 16: On striving to get better...
How these experienced leaders rated themselvesWith grateful thanks
Meet the author
Index