Latest on leadership, personal development and HR
Read our latest features and articles on leadership, personal development and HR
Free CPD: soft skills for leaders
If you’re in a leadership role, an aspiring CFO, or even a CFO looking to become CEO, having strong people skills is a top priority. ICAEW has a range of resources to boost your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours while raising your EQ.
Free CPD: essential skills for people managers
People skills, such as the communication, empathy, flexibility and active listening, are essential for line managers wishing to lead happy, productive teams. Brush up on your soft skills with these free Continuous Professional Development (CPD) resources.
Free CPD: communication and influencing skills
A recent survey revealed that nine out of 10 global executives believe soft skills to be more important than ever, with communication topping the list of sought-after skills for 2024. Use your Continued Professional Development (CPD) hours to build your communication confidence.
CPD courses, events, and programmes
We offer training and qualifications to a broad range of professionals, helping to foster the leadership, commercial, finance and technical capabilities that are fundamental to driving careers forward and supporting the long-term success of a business.
ICAEW Academy
As a global leader of the finance profession, ICAEW Academy offers a comprehensive range of learning solutions, designed to help finance teams and leaders at every stage of their professional development.
A-Z of CPD courses by topic
Unlock your potential and keep up with your CPD requirements with our comprehensive range of courses. Choose from a variety of formats, including virtual classrooms and in-person classes.
ICAEW Essentials CPD
This year’s enhanced fully-virtual programme focusses key technical updates, across core topics, and is designed for advisors and industry teams alike.
ICAEW flagship events
ICAEW boasts an extensive portfolio of industry-leading conferences. These flagship events offer the opportunity to hear from and interact with all the key players in the industry. Find out what's coming up.
eBooks
The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.
Exclusive
Good retirement guide 2024: everything you need to know about health, property, investment, leisure, work, pensions and tax
Contains information, suggestions and advice on all aspects of retirement and beyond.
Exclusive
Executive guide to integrated talent management
Nineteen experts examine research-based theopries and current practices in highly successful enterprises, and explain how you can adopt effective, state-of-the-art methods to integrate your talent management functions.
Exclusive
Practice of corporate governance
Every corporate entity has a governing body, whether it is called a board of directors, a committee, a council, or anything else. Many people, when appointed to the governing body of an organisation, have little idea of what to expect and what is expected of them. Even those with some experience find that the culture and leadership style of other governing bodies differ. The aim of this book is to help them understand and improve their controbution to the organisation and governing body they serve. It is a simple guide to the work of every board member.
Exclusive
Get that job: interviews - how to keep your head and get your ideal job
A guide to preparing for the interview process, maintaining focus, handling difficult questions, and maximising your chances of landing that dream job. Includes sections on psychometric tests and negotiating a salary package.
Exclusive
Key performance indicators: developing, implementing and using winning KPIs
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help define and measure the organizational goals which are fundamental to an organization's current and future success. This book provides a model for simplifying the complex areas of KPIs while helping organizations avoid common mistakes and hazards.
Exclusive
Numbers business: how to grow a successful cloud accountancy practice
This book is a road map that will help a qualified professional to start and grow a successful business from scratch.
Exclusive
Talent management handbook: making culture a competitive advantage by acquiring, identifying, developing and promoting the best people
A guide to finding, developing and keeping the best talent. Contains material for identifying, recruiting, positioning, and developing highly qualified, motivated people to meet current and future business requirements.
Exclusive
Employer's handbook 2017-18
The Employer's Handbook gives guidance for all small- to medium-sized employers in the UK, clearly identifying the legal essentials and best-practice guidelines for effective people management.
Business press
The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers'
terms of use.
Exclusive
What the best leadership teams do right
This article outlines three critical, highly interdependent roles that executive teams must play in order to have lasting impact on their company’s performance, culture, and ability to adapt. The authors provide tips as to how teams can play each of these roles successfully.
Exclusive
6 essential leadership skills — and how to develop them
This article highlights six leadership skills that have become essential in the contemporary workplace, and provides practical advice on how to develop them.
Exclusive
Shift your leadership from "power over" to "leading through"
An excerpt from a new book which calls for the end of the power-focused leadership model and the rise of a new approach — one which is caring, consciously seeks to do good, and mobilises
people to solve tough problems.
Exclusive
Teamwork at the top
This article sets out a four-step process to help leaders to promote beneficial patterns of collective behaviour within their teams. The authors point to five key behaviours — direction, discipline, drive, dynamism, and collaboration — as being crucial to the effectiveness of leadership teams.
Exclusive
Why leadership teams fail
Drawing on interviews with more than 100 CEOs and senior executives, this article outlines three main patterns of dysfunction within leadership teams. The authors aim to help leadership teams to diagnose their failings, and find ways to improve.
Exclusive
How to train an AI-enabled workforce - and why you need to
As artificial intelligence (AI) is adopted within organisations, there is a need for employee training in how to use AI tools most effectively. This article underscores the importance of upskilling workers for the AI revolution, and highlights practical strategies for building AI expertise.
Exclusive
Employee ownership trusts: An emerging strategy for HR leaders
Employee ownership has emerged as an effective strategy for attracting, engaging and retaining top talent. The author discusses the use of employee ownership trusts in the US and how they can provide opportunities to increase employee satisfaction, foster collaborative cultures and drive consistent business growth.
Exclusive
More seats at the table: A legacy-minded Charlotte contracting family opts for broader employee ownership
Blythe Development, a construction company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has opted for employee ownership by selling the business to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). ESOPs have been around for a number of years in the US but still remain rare. The company's decision is discussed, including the family's wish to maintain control of the business and to gain an advantage in the retention and recruitment of employees.
Articles and books in the ICAEW Library collection
The collection of the ICAEW
Library & Information Service includes a range of articles, books and reports on leadership, personal development and HR. Use the links below to see what we have available to request in our Library catalogue (Libcat).
Tolley's company secretary's handbook, 2024-25
An annual guide to all the basic duties of the company secretary. Serves as a working manual to the legal and procedural aspects of company administration, covering issues such as statutory accounts, company membership, corporate governance, employment law, health and safety, pensions, insurance and taxation.
Employment status: a tax guide, 5th ed.
This book guides the reader through the extensive and apparently contradictory case law on employment status. The special cases section includes information on the entertainment, sport and media sector, the farming sector, the legal sector, and healthcare professionals.
Pension magic: how to make the taxman pay for your retirement, 2024/25
This book 'shows you how to build a big retirement pot by claiming thousands of pounds of extra tax relief on your pension contributions'. Includes sections on pension contribution rules, pension freedom rules, pensions v ISAs, higher-rate taxpayers, auto-enrolment, salary sacrifice pensions, company directors, family pension planning and pension planning for the self-employed and property investors.
Retirement planning expert 2023
Straightforward, practical and easy to understand information - hundreds of hints and tips to help adapt, thrive and achieve a better lifestyle in retirement.
Finance aspects for medical doctors: a practical approach
Intended for use by GPs, practice managers and accountants, this book covers topics including employment and self-employment, tax saving measures, consultants earnings from private practice, pension contributions, IR35 and types of contracts.
To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.
You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.
External resources - Leadership
Acas guide on leadership
Guide from Acas designed to support people with leadership responsibilities at all levels of an organisation. Outlines the essential qualities, actions, considerations and implications associated with leadership using the Acas framework for effective leadership.
Investors in People leadership articles
Knowledge base of articles on leadership from Investors in People, covering topics such as motivating and empowering your team, democratic leadership and improving team wellbeing.
Leadership in the workplace
This factsheet investigates the concept of leadership and how it differs from management, the factors that can influence leadership development, and briefly examines how a principles-based approach to practice can support the development of leadership skills in people professionals.
The Gender, Leadership and Inclusion Centre (GLIC)
The GLIC is a research community which collaborates with industry and produces high quality research in the areas of gender, leadership and inclusion at work. The centre, which is part of Cranfield University's School of Management, is responsible for an annual benchmarking report,
The Female FTSE Board Report which has been published since 1999 and includes details of the number of female directors on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 boards. The website provides information on the work of the centre, its research projects and published research papers.
