Adrian Close Three Business and Leadership Books

1. Starting Strong: A New Manager’s Guide to Thriving in Leadership – The First 100 Days

Starting Strong is a practical and reassuring guide for new managers who want to succeed during one of the most important transitions in their career: the move from team member to leader. The first 100 days in a management role can shape how a manager is seen, how their team responds to them, and how confidently they step into responsibility. This book gives new managers a clear route through that early pressure.

Rather than overwhelming readers with theory, Starting Strong focuses on the real-world challenges managers face from day one. It helps new leaders understand how to set expectations, build trust, communicate clearly, manage time, delegate effectively, and establish credibility without losing their authenticity. It recognises that becoming a manager is exciting, but it can also feel daunting, especially when a new leader is suddenly responsible for performance, motivation, accountability, and team culture.

The book acts as a roadmap for the first three months in role. It guides readers through the key behaviours and decisions that help create a strong foundation: listening before acting, learning the strengths of the team, understanding expectations from senior leaders, building relationships, and creating early wins. It also tackles common mistakes that new managers can make, such as trying to do everything themselves, avoiding difficult conversations, failing to delegate, or assuming that being promoted automatically earns trust.

At its heart, Starting Strong is about helping new managers lead with clarity, confidence, and consistency. It encourages them to become the kind of leader people want to follow, not because of job title or authority, but because of how they show up for their team. It is ideal for first-time managers, aspiring managers, team leaders, supervisors, or anyone preparing for a leadership role.

This book is especially valuable because it combines practical leadership guidance with emotional reassurance. It reminds new managers that they do not need to have all the answers immediately. What matters most is how they learn, listen, communicate, take responsibility, and grow into the role. By the end, readers should feel better equipped to lead their team, manage pressure, create accountability, and build the habits that support long-term leadership success.

2. Focused Leadership: The Manager’s Path to Simplicity and Success – The Book, the Academy and the Support

Focused Leadership is a guide for managers who want to cut through the noise of modern leadership and return to what really matters: leading people well, creating clarity, building trust, and achieving results without becoming overwhelmed. It is written for managers who may feel pulled in too many directions, balancing targets, people issues, communication challenges, performance expectations, and the constant pressure to do more with less.

The central message of the book is that leadership does not need to be complicated to be effective. Good leadership begins with simple, consistent behaviours: listening properly, communicating expectations, treating people with respect, following through on commitments, developing others, and creating an environment where people feel safe, valued, and accountable.

Where Starting Strong supports the new manager’s first 100 days, Focused Leadership goes deeper into the ongoing journey of becoming a confident, consistent, and respected leader. It is about moving from reactive management to intentional leadership. Instead of simply responding to problems, the reader is encouraged to step back, focus on priorities, and lead with purpose.

The book connects strongly with the idea of human-centred leadership. It highlights the importance of emotional intelligence, integrity, empathy, confidence, and personal values. It challenges the outdated view that management is only about control, targets, and authority. Instead, it presents leadership as a daily choice: the choice to bring out the best in people, to create positive workplace cultures, and to build teams where people want to contribute.

A distinctive feature of this work is that it is not presented as a book alone. It links to a wider development approach through the Leadership and Management Growth Academy and ongoing support. This means the book can act as the starting point for learning, while the academy and support structure help managers apply the lessons in real working situations. This reflects Adrian’s practical training philosophy: leadership development works best when learning is supported by reflection, accountability, coaching, and real-world action.

Focused Leadership is well suited to new, aspiring, and developing managers who want to become more effective without losing themselves in complex leadership models. It is also useful for organisations that want their managers to lead with more consistency, humanity, confidence, and accountability.

The book’s value lies in its simplicity. It helps managers focus on what makes the biggest difference: how they communicate, how they respond under pressure, how they support their teams, and how they create a culture where people can perform and grow. It is a practical guide to becoming the kind of manager people trust, respect, and choose to follow.

3. Mastering the Path to Profit: A Six-Step Guide to Marketing Mastery for Independent Business Owners Everywhere

Mastering the Path to Profit is a practical marketing guide designed specifically for independent business owners who want to grow their business with greater clarity and confidence. Many small business owners are excellent at what they do, but they often struggle to explain their value, attract the right customers, build consistent marketing habits, or turn attention into profitable action. This book is written to help solve that problem.

The book demystifies marketing by breaking it down into a clear six-step process. Instead of treating marketing as something complicated, expensive, or reserved for large companies, it presents it as a practical discipline that independent business owners can understand and apply. The aim is to help readers move from scattered marketing activity to a more focused, strategic, and profitable approach.

At its core, Mastering the Path to Profit helps business owners think more clearly about who they serve, what they offer, why it matters, and how to communicate that value. It encourages readers to define their business goals, understand their customers, strengthen their message, and build marketing activity that supports real commercial outcomes. The focus is not vanity marketing, but practical marketing that helps a business attract customers, build trust, and increase profitability.

This book is especially relevant for sole traders, small business owners, consultants, service providers, trainers, coaches, and independent professionals who want to grow but may not have a large marketing team or budget. It recognises the reality of running a small business: time is limited, resources are precious, and every marketing decision needs to work hard.

The strength of the book is its practical structure. By using a six-step approach, it gives readers a pathway they can follow rather than leaving them with disconnected ideas. It helps business owners take control of their marketing, make better decisions, and avoid the confusion that often comes from trying to do everything at once.

Mastering the Path to Profit is not just about promotion. It is about building a stronger connection between business goals, customer needs, marketing activity, and profit. It helps readers see marketing as a route to clarity, confidence, and sustainable growth.

For independent business owners who feel stuck, uncertain, or overwhelmed by marketing, this book offers a practical roadmap. It encourages them to stop guessing, start focusing, and build a marketing approach that supports the long-term success of their business.