But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.
“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”
In today's fast-paced world of competitive workplaces and chaotic personal lives, each of us is searching for effective tools that can make our schedules, behaviors, and relationships more manageable. The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook shows us how understanding and utilizing emotional intelligence can be the key to exceeding our goals and achieving our fullest potential.
Authors Bradberry and Greaves use their years of experience as emotional intelligence researchers, consultants, and speakers to revitalize our current understanding of emotional intelligence. They have combined their latest research on emotional intelligence with a quick, easy-to-use format and cut-to-the-chase information to demonstrate how this other kind of "smart" helps us to decrease our stress, increase our productivity, understand our emotions as they happen, and interact positively with those around us.
The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook brings this concept to light in a way that has not been done before -- making EQ practical and easy to apply in every aspect of our daily lives. The Quickbook will help you to:
How many times have you bought the latest and greatest management book and let it collect dust on your shelf? Management fads come and go, but leaders across the globe know that when they need substance, they'll find it in Successful Manager's Handbook.
Fully updated and revised, this 7th edition continues the PDI tradition of providing smart, practical ideas and suggestions that you can use immediately on the job.
Never simplistic, always relevant, Successful Manager's Handbook is the ideal resource for you, your employees and the people you coach.
"A one-stop shop…a wonderful resource for improving performance." — D. Bradford Neary Director, Executive & Leadership Development Medtronic, Inc.
"No manager's toolkit should be without it…indispensable." — Greg Schaefer Manager, Curriculum Development Learning & Development Rockwell Collins
"Successful Manager's Handbook answers the perennial question, 'Now that I know what my strengths and development needs are, exactly what can I do about it?' This simple, action- and behavior-oriented tool helps everyone prepare specific, meaningful development plans." — Coleman Peterson President & CEO, Hollis Enterprises Retired EVP-People Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
"My team and I count on the processes and suggestions in PDI's Successful Manager's Handbook to help us focus the business and deliver on long-term strategies. The processes and suggestions also challenge me personally to become a more effective leader in our organization." — Andrew F. Nelson Vice President, HP & Executive Director HealthPartners Resource Foundation
Book Description
The new grand theory of leadership by Ram Charan . . . The breakthrough book that links know-how—the skills of people who know what they are doing— with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader.
How often have you heard someone with a commanding presence deliver a bold vision that turned out to be nothing more than rhetoric and hot air? All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business—the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before.
For well over four decades, Ram Charan has been learning in the most visceral way the underlying reasons why leaders succeed and fail. As one of the most influential advisers to top management teams of leading companies around the world, he has had a front-row seat to observe the cause and effect of leadership practices and behaviors.
Ram Charan’s insight into the real content of leadership provides you with the eight fundamental skills needed for success in the twenty-first century:
• Positioning (and, when necessary, repositioning) your business by zeroing in on the central idea that meets customer needs and makes money
• Connecting the dots by pinpointing patterns of external change ahead of others
• Shaping the way people work together by leading the social system of your business
• Judging people by getting to the truth of a person
• Molding high-energy, high-powered, high-ego people into a working team of leaders in which they equal more than the sum of their parts
• Knowing the destination where you want to take your business by developing goals that balance what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve
• Setting laser-sharp priorities that become the road map for meeting your goals
• Dealing creatively and positively with societal pressures that go beyond the economic value creation activities of your business
Know-How is the missing link of leadership. By showing how the eight know-hows link to, interact with, and reinforce personal and psychological traits, Ram Charan provides a holistic and innovative portrait of successful leaders of the twenty-first century.
Customer Reviews:
Some Good Insights.......2007-09-05
This book has some strong insights into identifying the skill set of performers and non-performers. It is also in some ways though too concise in terms of what Charan identifies.
For instance where he defines Tenacity - the drive to search, persist and follow through, but not too long.
I think Tenacity in leadership is terribly important and not something that has a point of stoppage.
I recently read Bob Prosen's "Kiss Theory Good Bye" and found its identification in terms of Crippling Habits that leaders/companies must overcome to be another inspiring book on how leaders and managers can truly empower long-term change in accountability and in terms of a company's bottom line.
Kiss Theory Good Bye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company
Eight priorities for success as a CEO.......2007-08-30
Forty-five years of observing businesses and business leaders as a trusted business-advisor lead Ram Charan to conclude that eight areas of know-how are essential to success: Positioning the Business; Pinpointing External Change; Leading the Social System of your Business; Judging People; Molding a Team; Developing goals; Setting Laser-sharp Priorities; Dealing with Societal Pressures. Using relatable examples Charan explains what he means by these areas of know-how and then ends each chapter's discussion with some guidance on how to gather this know-how.
An easy read that may leave you thinking, "He speaks common sense."
This book is recommended for business leaders who want to consider if they are giving the right priorities to their time and energies. Dennis DeWilde, Author of The Performance Connection
Common sense leadership advice.......2007-08-28
This book covers eight leadership principles in a generic way. The author uses the trick of using success cases that sustains his ideas, but neglects the countless other cases that do not fit his theory. Anyhow, it's an easy and worth read.
Use this to clarify thinking.......2007-08-26
The essence of the book is in the way the thoughts are organized and clarified - and the confirmation that many of our thoughts about running a company and who should be in the company are not just intuition.
It is good value for money and provides a good checklist. I think the first chapter sums it sum nicely; the financial essence of running a profitable company are the same, whether a shoe-shop, a pizza place or a consulting company. What makes the difference is the deep know how needed to succeed in the marketplace - and his value is in giving a framework around which a reader can do substantial self-assessment and put in place a good plan for self improvement.
I also think this is really a good read before making critical hires in particular - it allows one to step back a bit from the hurried pace of today's hiring and take a deep look at what is really needed.
If this book can also help prevent entrepreneurs going off into areas where they lack know-how, this alone would be a great outcome.
Good and Specific Ideas.......2007-08-24
"Know-How" provides a number of credible and helpful ideas on building and sustaining a successful organization. I particularly liked his brief comments on why G.M.'s year 2000 onwards push to regain market had failed, and would greatly have valued more material on strategic thinking. The bad news is, like many books, "Know-How" runs out of gas in its latter half - too many vague aspects relying very heavily on difficult-to-evaluate judgement.
Ram begins by asserting that personal attributes (eg. raw intelligence, commanding presence and great communication skills) are just one small slice of the leadership pie, and that their value is greatly diminished without know-how. ("Know-How" also points out that even management genius Jack Welch originally overemphasized personal attributes.) Some key know-how strengths include the ability to creatively and positively respond to societal pressures with significant impact (eg. global warming, fuel economy), and setting laser-sharp priorities aligning resources and actions to accomplish the goals.
Important personal traits include ambition (with integrity and knowledge regarding where to move), drive and tenacity (stick to the plan, but also realize when it is not working), self-confidence (not driven by a desire to be liked and thereby tolerate non-performers), psychological openness, and an appetite for learning.
Positioning is the central idea of one's business, and most will require at change within each decade. Declining revenues/market share are warning signs. Basic positioning question is "Why is what we offer better than the other options available?" Another is "Where can we win?"
New technology often creates a need to reposition - eg. Google's impact on newspaper advertising. This need may be obscured by conflicting signals - eg. a rise in one region's sales. Another example is Blockbuster vs. Internet movie downloads, or IPod vs. music stores. Down the road thinking is essential in these situations, taking competitors' likely actions into account. The political process now has greater impact than ever before, representing another key area for review - eg. societal positions on global warming, fuel economy.
Immelt of G.E. uses "Dream sessions" to assess trends. Invites customer CEOs (and 1-2 associates) in for a 1-2 day session to hear what the participants visualize for up to ten years. External trends, root causes, views from their customers and regulators are considered. Immelt is also likely to ask those CEOs where they think G.E. should put its R&D priorities.
Promoting cooperation among top leaders is another important concern for a CEO. A new CEO observed that Sherwin-Williams' division presentations degenerated into 7-hour general discussions constantly interrupted by questions from other heads. He decided to limit the presentations to one hour, without interruption, and require the audience to submit three questions - of which he would choose the best. Finally, he asked the division heads whether the meeting had benefited them. Considerable improvement resulted.
Ram suggests multiple people participate in the evaluation of leaders. The intent is more probing, balanced judgement. (However, my experience in an organization needing substantial transformation is that the prior culture's leaders are not likely to focus on the right strengths - eg. overvalue "teamwork" vs. results.)
Hiring criteria for new people should focus on 3-4 top issues; using a broad checklist results in selecting so-so performers with broader experience than most. At least some of the new leaders should come from areas expecting new growth - eg. Brazil, China, India (for an international organization), store managers for Home Depot.
As for the G.M. vignette, when Wagoner took over in 2000 its N.A. market share had been slipping for years, particularly due to Toyota and Honda. Cash generation and margins were shrinking and factories were far below capacity. Wagoner decided to regain market share (probably the politically most popular choice, though my review of others is that it is rarely accomplished), and focused on rebates to accomplish this. Market share did go up, but cash and margins fell; its bonds were downgraded to junk status. Reality was that Toyota and Honda have major competitive advantages - shorter cycle times for new models, and fewer models requiring redesign investment. Also, neither were saddled with G.M.'s health care costs, and the operational excellence added an additional boost to margins. Ram suggests that G.M. should instead have killed off unsustainable product lines - eg. Hummer, Saab, and focused on improving results of those remaining.
Book Description
In Leading Change, John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.
Customer Reviews:
Effectively Managing Change.......2007-08-17
In this book, Kotter methodically and carefully explains his eight-step process for creating major change in business organizations. He notes that the rate of organisational change has been increasing in recent years. The rapid and continual innovation in technology is driving changes to organisational systems and processes. There are also increased expectations of employees as they move more freely between organisations.
Kotter highlights the critical importance of leadership in any change programme. Strong, sustained leadership is crucial to changing deeply rooted corporate cultures and successfully implementing the change process.
John Kotter describes a helpful eight step model for understanding and managing change. Each stage acknowledges a key principle identified by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change, in which people see, feel and then change.
In spite of the importance and permanence of organisational change, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organisational benefits. This book should help those involved in the change process to avoid the pitfalls and follow the eight steps that are explained in detail in the book.
Anyone planning or implementing a change programme will find the book useful, helpful and handy. The author presents the subject in a simple, concise, and easy to follow format.
Wow - thoughtful AND useful.......2007-06-28
Kotter's book is a roadmap of how to introduce a culture change effectively into an organization. Similar to "Good to Great" (Jim Collins), the book is much better organized and thorough.
Amazing!!.......2007-06-26
Have no further words to describe how increrable John Kotter brings in a easy way a subject so complex and important now-a-days. Indeed, it is recommend for all leaders who wants to take right decisions during turbulent times.
Still the definitive work on Change.......2007-06-13
I have been working in the change arena for the last 15 years and Kotter's book on Leading Change is still the definitive work. Based on his seminal 1994 HBR article "Leading Change: Why Transformations efforts fail" this is the best down-to-earth guide for both consultants and managers leading change. It has good practical examples and straightforward arguments - no psychological mumbo jumbo.
Envision, introduce, sustain change. or die........2007-05-09
Kotter gives us here a valuable handbook on how to visualize, introduce, and sustain change in an organization. Here are a few quotes:
"Handling new initiatives quickly is not an essential component of success in relatively stable or cartel-like environments. The problem for us today is that stability is no longer the norm. And most experts agree that over the next few decades the business environment will become only more volatile."
"Useful change tends to be associated with a multistep process that creates power and motivation sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of inertia."
Amazon.com
Using the story/parable format so popular these days, Leadership and Self-Deception takes a novel psychological approach to leadership. It's not what you do that matters, say the authors (presumably plural--the book is credited to the esteemed Arbinger Institute), but why you do it. Latching onto the latest leadership trend won't make people follow you if your motives are selfish--people can smell a rat, even one that says it's trying to empower them. The tricky thing is, we don't know that our motivation is flawed. We deceive ourselves in subtle ways into thinking that we're doing the right thing for the right reason. We really do know what the right thing to do is, but this constant self-justification becomes such an ingrained habit that it's hard to break free of it--it's as though we're trapped in a box, the authors say.
Learning how the process of self-deception works--and how to avoid it and stay in touch with our innate sense of what's right--is at the heart of the book. We follow Tom, an old-school, by-the-book kind of guy who is a newly hired executive at Zagrum Corporation, as two senior executives show him the many ways he's "in the box," how that limits him as a leader in ways he's not aware of, and of course how to get out. This is as much a book about personal transformation as it is about leadership per se. The authors use examples from the characters' private as well as professional lives to show how self-deception skews our view of ourselves and the world and ruins our interactions with people, despite what we sincerely believe are our best intentions.
While the writing won't make John Updike lose any sleep, the story entertainingly does the job of pulling the reader in and making a potentially abstruse argument quite enjoyable. The authors have a much better ear for dialogue than is typical of the genre (the book is largely dialogue), although a certain didactic tone creeps in now and then. But ultimately it's a hopeful, even inspiring read that flows along nicely and conveys a message that more than a few managers need to hear. --Pat McGill
Book Description
The "disease" of self-deception (acting in ways contrary to what one knows is right) underlies all leadership problems in today's organizations, according to the premise of this work. However well intentioned they may be, leaders who deceive themselves always end up undermining their own performance.
This straightforward book explains how leaders can discover their own self-deceptions and learn how to escape destructive patterns. The authors demonstrate that breaking out of these patterns leads to improved teamwork, commitment, trust, communication, motivation, and leadership.
Customer Reviews:
A life Changing Book.......2007-09-27
This book was referred to me by a friend and is a life changing book. I have shared it around the office as well. Well written and an easy read.
Painful slog.......2007-09-21
I received this book as part of a leadership training process. The leader bought a copy for everyone involved. I'm afraid she should have spent the money elsewhere.
Reading the book is a slow painful slog. The story does not draw me in and the prose has the fluidity of cardboard (which is the material used to create the characters).
The thesis, we deceive ourselves by denying our part in creating the problems we face, is valid. It is not, however, new. It's been around since Aristotle, at least.
What I didn't know was hurting me.......2007-09-15
Great book! The things I learned about how I was decieving myself were amazing. Now I have to really think things through so I know why I feel what I feel. I always have a choice to be in or out. If you don't know why I said that, then you need to read the book.
Getting Out of the Box: A New Perspective.......2007-09-10
This is an easy to read book, however, that is no indication of its importance. Tremendously enlightening perspectives presented in a unique frame. A MUST for anyone who interacts with human beings in any arena.
Improve your communication skills with everyone!.......2007-08-31
LEADERSHIP AND SELF DECEPTION IS A BOOK FROM WHICH ALL READERS MAY BENEFIT. I PERSONALLY RECOMMENDED IT TO A CEO OF A SMALL COMPANY, HE SHARED IT WITH ALL OF HIS TEAM LEADERS. I HAVE ALSO ENCOURAGED ACQUANTIANCES TO READ THIS BOOK TO IMPROVE THEIR MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS AS WELL AS THE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR CHILDREN. I GAVE EACH OF MY OWN CHILDREN A COPY; I FEEL THAT IT WILL HELP THEM IN ALL ASPECTS OF COMMUNICATING IN THIER OWN LIVES.
"GETTING OUT OF THE BOX" IS A PRINCIPLE THAT IF PRACTICED WOULD RESULT IN A BETTER WAY OF LIFE. HAPPINESS AND PEACE WOULD ABOUND,PRODUCTION WOULD INCREASE, MENTAL BLURR WOULD DIMINISH, AND FAMILIES AS WELL AS BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS WOULD BE EMPOWERED TO WORK TOWARD COMMON GOALS. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!
Book Description
Used by more than a million people throughout the world, this highly readable book provides a comprehensive examination of the applied behavioral sciences, and focuses on fundamental ideas which have stood the test of years of application in academic, business, not-for-profit and administrative environments. Complete coverage of motivation and behavior, situational leadership, building effective relationships, planning and implementing change, leadership strategies, the organizational cone and integrating situational leadership with the Classics. For individuals interested in expanding their knowledge of, and proficiency in leadership strategies.
Customer Reviews:
Call this book the Management Bible.......2007-09-19
Ken Blanchard went on to become the management guru of the 90s, writing countless books that can be found right here on Amazon. However, this text book is where is all began. I call it a text book because it is. This text has been used and is still used in management schools around the nation. Written with Hersey and Johnson, this book is the definitive foundation text on how to manage organizational behavior as it pertains to managing people. Following are a couple key points:
1) Diagnosis: It is a manager's job to modify their management style to employee needs. Evaluting employee needs and corresponding management styles can be easily done using Situational Leadership tools (found in book).
2) Intervention: Performance can be managed using the fundamental postive reinforcement psychology. Further, by consciously indentifying needs, performance can be improved more rapidly.
3) Evaluation: If behavioral change does not occur, the individual may not be in the right role.
This sounds dry and obvious by today's standards, but it wasn't when the first edition of this book was published (1980s). Further, most modern organiztional and management theory is based on this book. There is still gold to dig from its pages.
A 'must have' for all leaders........2006-06-17
If you take your job as a business leader seriously, this book is a 'must have'. As a business coach I use it in my practice with great success. For leaders (and managers who think they are leaders) and their teams it's an eye-opener. It gives insight in what it takes to turn a good team into a great team, and what great leadership is all about. If you want to be more effective as a leader and take your team to the highest level of readiness, read this book. It will change your life....and of those you lead.
Management of Organizational Behavior.......2005-02-26
Not too bad as these books go but a tremendous amount of verbiage explaining the obvious. Excellent example of turning simple concepts in complex charts and definitions. I would imagine that people in the field love this hyperbole but it's BS to me and pretty much a waste of time to drudge though all of it.
Goes where few texts dare to go: the real-world.......2004-03-15
I recommend this to managers as much as students.
Sure, the price seems like a lot of cash to shell out at first. But trust me, it is worth it. I had to read it for a Management class, and it started of like a typical OB text, illustrating the history of management studies (Taylor to Maslow to Mayo to Likert to ...). Good stuff, but pretty dull. Then, Hersey et al went where most scholars, even the supposedly worldly MBA types, fear to tread: real-world application!
The text covers all of the material covered Blanchard's "One Minute Manager," "Putting the One Minute Manager to Work," and a shelf load of other books. It also does a great job introducing Blanchard and Hersey's Situational Leadership, where the manager matches leadership behavior to a report's ability level and motivation. This replaces "Leadership and the One Minute Manager," and delves much deeper into the topic.
Hersey et al also cover:
- Behavioral shaping, and positive and negative reinforcement quite nicely
- Communications skills necessary to lead reports
- Power building, and using effective power bases ...
- The list literally goes on and on.
I use the concepts I was first exposed to here day in and day out. They work. My OB professor told us that, if he would be limited to just one book on management, he would choose this one. And, five years later, I agree. I am very glad that I did not sell this book back to the campus bookstore. I consult the book at least once a week while pondering both thorny and maundane problems with my employees.
You see, Dr. Davis? Some of us do listen.
All about Leadership!!! Must read!.......2003-06-13
This book is one of my favorites! It leads you first through a complete review of management and leadership theories, then introduces the authors' famous SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP model and theory. This book goes into great depth about the sit-lead model and theory, and is a great read. Want to be a better leader??? Read the book by the experts! ...
Book Description
KISS THEORY GOOD BYE
NEW BUSINESS BOOK GIVES TEXTBOOK THEORY THE BIG KISS OFF!
Business Expert Writes the Playbook on 'How To' Rapidly Increase Performance and Profit in Any Company.
Bob Prosen cuts like a laser through the fog of political correctness and business-as-usual in his new book, Kiss Theory Good Bye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company.
Prosen says he's had enough of the business books that tell readers what to do rather than how. "Forget the platitudes and feel-good anecdotes from a few CEOs and business gurus. Get to the point—the how-to details that can actually help leaders get the results they need in the companies they run," Prosen counsels.
With the same genius that he used to turn around inherited, underperforming operations within 12 to 18 months in some of the world's most prominent companies including AT&T, Sprint, Hitachi, NCR, and Sabre, Prosen delivers a straightforward, no-nonsense, battle proven guide to accelerate performance and profits in any organization.
"A smart business leader can achieve unprecedented bottom-line results by forsaking abstract discussions and vague textbook theory, shutting down endless excuses, killing off company politics, holding people accountable, and simply doing things that clearly work," says Prosen.
Kiss Theory Good Bye shows you how to quickly and consistently achieve extraordinary results in leadership, sales effectiveness, operational excellence, financial management, and customer loyalty.
Packed with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions, this book will show you how to
•Achieve consistent results, quarter after quarter
•Align your entire workforce to meet the organization's top objectives
•Increase accountability so you get the results you need
•Attract and retain top talent
•Beat your competition and lock in customer loyalty
•Reduce costs while increasing quality
•React less and have more time to plan
•Make your job easier and your organization run more smoothly
Contrary to the book's seemingly corporate focus, readers quickly point out that his business execution principles apply equally to not-for-profit organizations. As Los Angeles Unified School District Business Manager Michael A. Eugene reports, "Kiss Theory Good Bye is a compelling read, offering a toolbox to public- and private-sector managers alike to help establish clear focus, increase accountability, effective management, and measurable outcomes."
While other business books try to tell you what to do to run your business better, faster and for greater profit, Bob Prosen's Kiss Theory Good Bye gives you the tools and step-by-step directions to make it happen. For leaders who demand superior results, Kiss Theory Good Bye delivers the goods for taking immediate - and lasting - action.
My goal for sharing my knowledge and experiences is to give you the answers you need to immediately enable your enterprise to achieve its full potential. Leaders want their ideas and initiatives consistently carried out without hassle and rework. They want accountability, and value results over theory. I wrote Kiss Theory Good Bye with two principles in mind. First, theory would be replaced with proven tools, tactics, and answers that get results. Second, all of the information must be relevant and directly applicable to today's business challenges without the need for translation.
Until now this information has only been available piecemeal, leaving you to find, assemble, and translate it to fit your business. You might have gathered some of it through mentors, by trial and error, or by surviving the "school of hard knocks." But by the time you finish reading Kiss Theory Good Bye, you will have the answers you need to immediately begin improving results throughout your entire organization. And you will find that this book will remain a useful resource for quick, proven answers to resolve your most pressing business challenges.
Customer Reviews:
Required Reading for MBA Students.......2007-09-24
From the moment I read Prosen's book, I knew it had to be required reading for the MBA class I'm teaching. Because my day job puts me in the trenches with organizations of all sizes, I knew that this book hit the nail on the head. While other books make the case for getting from "good to great" this book creates the roadmap for HOW to achieve it. With relevant examples, usable tools, and a down-to-earth common sense approach, Prosen provides a timeless tool of common sense for senior leaders of organizations. He also provides applicable reasons for addressing the "nay sayers" in the organization. If you're tired of books that provide a lot of fluff with little take-back-to-your-desk-application, then get this book. My MBA students have assured me that they are keeping this book in their library.
Practical advice and a powerful read!.......2007-08-11
Our CEO group used the content from this book to transform our businesses in 2007! The tools and concepts are both practical and measurable. To date it has helped our group increase enterprise value by over $500M! The entry price of this book seems pretty reasonable for the return.
There are better places to spend your business-book dollars.......2007-07-19
Thirty-one Amazon customers loved Kiss Theory Good Bye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company (Bob Prosen, Gold Pen Publishing, 2006, 256 pages). I didn't. I'm more inclined to agree with Publishers Weekly that this book is "prosaic" and "utterly familiar." There are better places to spend your business-leadership-book money.
Prosen set out to provide answers and tools to help business leaders overcome barriers to success. Drawing on 25 years of consulting experience, and on the self-ratings of some 66 leaders, Prosen claims to have found five crippling habits that prevent success and five attributes of successful organizations.
Unless you just crawled out of a cave, you already know what it takes to succeed:
Superior leadership
Sales effectiveness
Operational excellence
Financial management
Customer loyalty.
You need to read many books, watch many leaders in action, and try many things yourself to really understand each of these. Prosen devotes between 14 and 24 pages to each one. That's just not enough to give you any new insights or ideas.
If I were you, I'd turn to these books instead:
For general leadership insight, look to Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right and 12: The Elements of Great Managing.
For sales effectiveness, turn to Strategic Customer Care : An Evolutionary Approach to Increasing Customer Value and Profitability and Delivering Profitable Value: A Revolutionary Framework to Accelerate Growth, Generate Wealth, and Rediscover the Heart of Business.
For operational excellence, your focus should be on increasing value-adding activities and eliminating non-value-adding activities. (This isn't the same as Prosen's cost-control focus.) Here I recommend two books that explain Lean thinking: Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated and The Toyota Way Fieldbook.
The best source on financial management I've read is Financial Intelligence: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean.
For customer loyalty, you can't go wrong if you pick up Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together.
Back to the Basics.......2007-07-15
A refreshing theme throughout this book is the need for companies to create cultures based on accountability and results. When organizations have clear directives and hold team members accountable to achieve them, great things happen. Without these basic building blocks, some of the "cripplers" that Bob enumerates - rationalizing inferior performance, planning in lieu of action, and aversion to risk/change spread throughout organizations substantially eroding their effectiveness. This is "common sense, but not common practice" - a mantra frequently repeated by the author.
Bob introduces 5 attributes of highly profitable companies - superior leadership, sales effectiveness, operational excellence, financial management, and customer loyalty. He then explains how to execute in each of the areas. Bob asks questions to help the reader identify where his/her organization stands in each area so focus can be placed appropriately. Lists of actions complete each chapter with references to additional helpful materials available on the author's website.
Leaders/Managers at all levels need to get back to the basics. This book shows them the way. It cuts through the clutter and noise and addresses common problems with practical and proven solutions. If the tips in this book are "practiced," and institutionalized extraordinary results will follow.
Nick McCormick - Author, Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager
Finallly a book with practical and real-world application.......2007-07-02
I was fortunate enough to see Bob speak at a local SMEI event several months back which prompted me to purchase the book there in person. His practical, real-life examples and principles are a must for the successful GM and sales leader. Thanks Bob for a book we can all apply right away!
Mike Merrill
Account Executive
Dell, Inc.
Plano, TX
Books:
- True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
- Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting
- Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation
- West Federal Taxation 2005: Business Entities
- When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection
- Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
- Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
- Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
- Workflow Modeling: Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development
- Written on Silk (The Silk House #2)
Books Index
Books Home
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- The Book of JavaScript, 2nd Edition: A Practical Guide to Interactive Web Pages
- Conserving Buildings: Guide to Techniques and Materials, Revised Edition
- Cooperative Equilibria in Physical Biochemistry
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
![The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0374292795.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
The Substance of Successful Leaders
