Counselling for Toads – A Psychological adventure – Robert de Board

Ok, I’m going a little off Piste with this one as it’s not a leadership book per se but bear with me. It is my belief that if you understand yourself better, you will have a better understanding of your impact on others, why you react the way you do with others and how you can change it for the better to benefit you and the people you live with or work with on a daily basis. Therefore, becoming a better leader.

I was recommended this book many years ago by a friend of mine, an expert in learning and leadership. She explained how it had opened her mind to analysing her own feelings so I just had to give it a go. Whilst the book suggests it is appropriate for anyone approaching counselling, whether as a student, client or counsellor this book will appeal to adults of all ages whatever walk of life or sector of business you are from. In my experience as a leader, a manager, a friend and a mother, I have had to do a lot of involuntary counselling in my time. This book makes you look inwards as well as outwards. It is my opinion that the book would also benefit anyone willing to learn more about emotional intelligence, as again in my opinion, being a good Leader is about knowing when to use your IQ or your EQ or both!

I detest long laborious books that waffle on, but this book is short, only 153 pages long, easy to read and compelling enough that most people – even those who are easily bored by books, like me – would finish it! I found the book humorous in parts, captivating and very thought provoking.

The story’s characters are taken from the Wind and the Willows. Each chapter is devoted to one of Toad’s counselling sessions with Heron. The method used by Heron is ‘transactional analysis’. Toad learns that he has suppressed the anger he felt as a child and therefore Heron helps him through a process of reflection and change to recognise and discard the Child Ego State that Toad is constantly in and make positive progress in his life.

In a simple and easy to understand way, the book introduces some basic concepts about the different psychological states that exist within our heads and how they can affect our day to day lives, beliefs and our interactions with others. It starts to show you that by recognising why you react the way you do, you can change the way you behave for the better.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. As I said, not your straight forward badged ‘leadership’ book, but one that will make you stop and think as an individual, a parent, a manager or a leader!

Jayne Stokes
Company Secretary
The Leaders Club