There is no doubt that sharing knowledge and collaborating to apply knowledge has the potential to generate value. But the inability to define specific tangible benefits in advance, a lack of confidence that these benefits will be realised and underestimating the value of intangible benefits can reduce executive support. And without support many programmes simply grind to a costly halt with little or no impact on business process or success.

Ensuring the success of these programmes requires a unique set of skills, capabilities and experience.

Ark Group's Being a Successful Knowledge Leader report by Arthur Shelley is written specifically to help you identify and develop the most talented, inspiring and successful knowledge leaders within your organisation. Leaders who can create self sustaining programmes that become part of the way you work, delivering continuous improvements in your communication, profitability, creativity, innovation and ultimately organisational performance.

Being a Successful Knowledge Leader will enable you to:

• Create short-term successes and benefits to win support for long-term goals;
• Enhance performance and align with organisational goals, rather than achieve isolated knowledge objectives;
• Achieve measurable benefits that build confidence throughout the organisation;
• Allow for flexibility in outcomes to enable emergent ideas to mature;
• Enable your people to make fail-safe decisions and adopt emergent concepts; and
• Successfully manage and learn from unpredicted negative outcomes.

As well as strategic responsibilities, the report looks at people management skills, including:

• Understanding when facilitative or directive leadership is appropriate;
• Developing strong relationships at all levels of the organisation;
• Engaging project staff and the wider organisation with your KM projects;
• Enabling interaction, collaboration, innovation and growth;
• Creating awareness, anticipation and focus on outcomes and benefits whilst reducing fear of change;
• Ensuring motivations and behaviours are aligned with the goals of the sponsoring parties; and
• Ensuring employees' efforts are valued.

Being a Successful Knowledge Leader also looks specifically at:

• How to find people with the right capabilities and motivate them to generate the biggest impacts;
• What capabilities are critical for a person to be successful;
• How to create a development programme that can specifically target potential knowledge leaders; and
• If these programmes could be useful for managers and leaders generally.

This report contains real-world examples of how organisations have achieved success using these methods, the challenges they have faced and the obstacles they have overcome. It includes contributions from Fluor, Cadbury Schweppes, Nasa and more.

Begin securing the future growth and success of not just your KM initiatives but your entire organisation. In a difficult economic climate, knowledge remains one of your most valuable assets so start achieving your full potential today.