First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently

First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently

The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide variety of situations. Some were in leadership positions. Others were front-line supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies; others were key players in small, entrepreneurial companies. Whatever their situations, the managers who ultimately became the focus of Gallup's research were invariably those who excelled at turning each employee's talent into performance.

In today's tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. The front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees. No matter how generous its pay or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer.

Buckingham and Coffman explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations for him or her -- they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps; how they motivate people -- they build on each person's unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses; and, finally, how great managers develop people -- they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. And perhaps most important, this research -- which initially generated thousands of different survey questions on the subject of employee opinion -- finally produced the twelve simple questions that work to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. This book is the first to present this essential measuring stick and to prove the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover.

There are vital performance and career lessons here for managers at every level, and, best of all, the book shows you how to apply them to your own situation.

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Leadership Lessons of the U.S. Navy SEALS : Battle-Tested Strategies for Creating Successful Organizations and Inspiring Extraordinary Results

Leadership Lessons of the U.S. Navy SEALS : Battle-Tested Strategies for Creating Successful Organizations and Inspiring Extraordinary Results

Review

"(Military teambuilding offers) more dimensions than a ropes course, and requires initiative, creativity, and discipline. I can easily see the parallels to the workplace." - Stephen Covey"

From the Back Cover

Winning leadership strategies from the Navy's Elite Special Forces

With hands-on, field-tested advice from authors with decades of experience in business and combat, this straight-talking handbook shows how the leadership and team-building techniques of the elite, no-nonsense Navy SEALs can help you forge a powerful, goal-driven workforce, one that is prepared to take on--and triumph over--every challenge. Built around first-hand examples from both the military and business worlds, this step-by-step success manual will show you how to

  • Communicate objectives simply and forcefully
  • Build flexible and dynamic organizational structures
  • Gain the trust and loyalty of team members
  • Prevent bureaucracy within chains of command
  • Plan and prepare for crises

Enlist the Leadership Lessons of the Navy SEALs to transform your workplace from a group of disconnected individuals into a confident, goal-driven team.

"The SEALs are without doubt one of the highest-performing organizations on the planet. The secret ingredient is that every SEAL is a leader/teacher, engaged in continuous, interactive teaching and learning. This book . . . is a must read for all leaders."--Noel M. Tichy, Professor, University of Michigan Business School and author of The Cycle of Leadership

About the Author

Jeff Cannon is the senior vice president of Draft Worldwide's Interactive Department. He founded and managed Marcis Interactive, a highly successful online advertising agency.

Lt. Cmdr. Jon Cannon has led SEALs missions around the globe. He has helped develop marketing and new product launch strategies for European and Middle Eastern companies.

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Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders gives anyone from managers to executives an unparalleled opportunity to do just that. John Baldoni explores the communication styles of many of the world's most influential leaders and extracts powerful lessons that leaders of all stripes can use to improve their communication skills and overall leadership effectiveness. Drawing upon his years of experience as a top leadership consultant, visionary and coach, Baldoni:

Reveals the communications secrets of Jack Welch, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, Peter Drucker, Winston Churchill, Steve Jobs, Katharine Graham, and many other influential leaders
Distills the proven communication techniques of today's greatest leaders into core strategies and step-by-step solutions
Develops guidelines for making the most of computer-aided presentations, videoconferencing, and other new technologies

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Business at the Speed of Now: Fire Up Your People, Thrill Your Customers, and Crush Your Competitors

Business at the Speed of Now: Fire Up Your People, Thrill Your Customers, and Crush Your Competitors

Business at the Speed of Now delivers a new real-time management philosophy and system to leaders looking for better results in today's constantly changing market. Companies that inspire and equip employees and expect them to seize opportunities and solve problems in the now will enjoy a distinct competitive advantage in a world where speed matters most. Get systematic advice on how to build an integrated and transparent management system, enabled by cloud computing and internal social networks. Use this comprehensive guide to create a NOW organization where everyone boldly pursues every opportunity every time.

The vast majority of businesses cling to a THEN management model and philosophy designed to prevent immediate action. In this practical handbook, you'll learn how to apply technology to the three essential types of work: Fundamentals (routine work that consumes 95 percent of all resources), Breakthroughs (initiatives that can change the game), and Problems (daily challenges and crises that occur in all organizations).

Provides a wealth of real-world examples, assessments, tools, guidelines, and checklists that enable readers to apply the concepts immediately
Offers practical tools for building accountability and transparency into every position, thereby eliminating the loose ends that so often cause business execution to stumble
Presents the groundbreaking insights of John Bernard, an expert on management theory and practice, the use of social media inside the organization, and the modern workforce, whose company, Mass Ingenuity, consults around the world and develops Web-based tools to support real-time management
Set your organization free from the old THEN management ways that no longer get the results you need. Adopt the new NOW management thinking and the state-of-the-art tools that will get your organization doing business at the speed of now.

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A Sense of Urgency

A Sense of Urgency

Most organizational change initiatives fail spectacularly (at worst) or deliver lukewarm results (at best). In his international bestseller Leading Change, John Kotter revealed why change is so hard, and provided an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations. The book became the change bible for managers worldwide.

Now, in A Sense of Urgency, Kotter shines the spotlight on the crucial first step in his framework: creating a sense of urgency by getting people to actually see and feel the need for change.

Why focus on urgency? Without it, any change effort is doomed. Kotter reveals the insidious nature of complacency in all its forms and guises.

In this exciting new book, Kotter explains:

· How to go beyond "the business case" for change to overcome the fear and anger that can suppress urgency

· Ways to ensure that your actions and behaviors -- not just your words -- communicate the need for change

· How to keep fanning the flames of urgency even after your transformation effort has scored some early successes

Written in Kotter's signature no-nonsense style, this concise and authoritative guide helps you set the stage for leading a successful transformation in your company.

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That’s Not How We Do It Here!: A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall–and Can Rise Again

That’s Not How We Do It Here!: A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall–and Can Rise Again

In their iconic bestseller Our Iceberg Is Melting, John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber used a simple fable about penguins to explain the process of lead­ing people through major changes. Now, ten years later, they’re back with another must-read story that will help any team or organization cope with their biggest challenges and turn them into exciting opportunities.

Once upon a time a clan of meerkats lived in the Kalahari, a region in southern Africa. After years of steady growth, a drought has sharply reduced the clan’s resources, and deadly vulture attacks have increased. As things keep getting worse, the har­mony of the clan is shattered. The executive team quarrels about possible solutions, and sugges­tions from frontline workers face a soul-crushing response: “That’s not how we do it here!”

So Nadia, a bright and adventurous meerkat, hits the road in search of new ideas to help her trou­bled clan. She discovers a much smaller group that operates very differently, with much more teamwork and agility. These meerkats have developed innova­tive solutions to find food and evade the vultures. But not everything in this small clan is as perfect as it seems at first.

Can Nadia figure out how to combine the best of both worlds—a large, disciplined, well-managed clan and a small, informal, inspiring clan—before it’s too late?

This book distills Kotter’s decades of experi­ence and award-winning research to reveal why organizations rise and fall, and how they can rise again in the face of adversity.

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