In keeping with the theme of the June 3 Guide to Management and Executive Development, the books reviewed below are tremendous self-help resources or inputs into structured learning programs for an organization’s new or experienced leaders.
The topics are timely in today’s work environment:
•management of professionals, both as individuals and as teams, in the context of projects, billable client work or ongoing corporate responsibilities;
•building loyalty, retention and valuable commitment among employees, as well as customers and investors;
•a focus on clear accountability as a foundation for strong management, employee and team performance; and
•everybody’s favourite and perennial challenge: communication, specifically in the managerial role and environment.
First Among Equals: How to manage a group of professionals
By Patrick McKenna and David Maister, 288 pages (2002), Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2551-1
It’s a role long familiar to principals in consulting firms, partners in law firms, team leaders in software engineering or finance, marketing and project managers — providing leadership to people who are more like “peers” than subordinates, professionals who are knowledgeable, independent, self-motivated, and sometimes difficult to work with.
The issues include leading while also being a contributor and doer, balancing individual and team requirements, responding to widely different styles, maintaining an effective group size, dealing with prima donnas and large egos and developing a culture of success.
The authors are seasoned experts on management of professional services firms. McKenna is based in Edmonton, Maister in Boston. They’ve written a “playbook” full of practical tips and examples, ideas for handling stressful day-to-day situations and an approach to coaching that recognizes the importance of both individual and group focus and relationships.
The book emphasizes the need to build a relationship with each individual before dealing with a group:
•win permission to coach;
•listen to build rapport;
•help underperformers;
•deal with high achievers who are also rebels, complainers, obnoxious and/or arrogant; and
•build support for change.
Then, turn attention to managing the team:
•clarify group goals;
•build team trust;
•throw down a challenge;
•energize meetings;
•give recognition; and
•resolve conflicts and crises.
Another section of the book deals with preparing for the future through integrating new people and nurturing juniors. A comprehensive chapter on measuring group results outlines a full scorecard approach encompassing group self-evaluation and leader evaluation by the group, client satisfaction, financial performance and other relevant criteria.
Readers will find numerous frameworks and checklists to guide the leader’s efforts:
•assessing a group’s effectiveness;
•profiling where a leader does, and should, spend time;
•terms of engagement in taking on a leadership role;
•understanding the leadership role as a “trusted advisor”;
•what to do each week in order to maintain relationships; and
•establishing group rules of conduct and standards.
McKenna and Maister offer some real challenges: define the group leader role by agreement with those you supervise and those you report to, base performance reviews not only on individual contributions but also on contributing to the success of others, include team members in decision-making.
Loyalty Rules!
By Frederick F. Reichheld, 213 pages (2001), Harvard Business School Press. At bookstores or 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca ISBN 1-57851-205-0
Subtitled “How today’s leaders build lasting relationships”, this book addresses the following challenge:
“Fewer than half of today’s employees believe that their companies deserve their loyalty. Web-empowered customers now defect more easily and more quickly than ever. Has loyalty become an outdated notion in today’s marketplace?”
The book is organized around six principles for enhancing loyalty across three key stakeholder groups: employees, customers and investors:
1. Play to win/win: profiting at a partner’s expense is a shortcut to a dead end.
2. Be picky: membership is a privilege.
3. Keep it simple: complexity is the enemy of speed and flexibility.
4. Reward the right results: worthy partners deserve worthy goals.
5. Listen hard, talk straight: long-term relationships require honest, two-way communication and learning.
6. Preach what you practice: actions often speak louder than words, but together they are unbeatable.
Harley-Davidson, Dell, Cisco Systems, the New York Times and Northwestern Mutual are among the companies whose practices and culture are profiled as positive role models of loyalty leadership in the new economy.
HR readers will be interested in the focus on employee relationships: selection, promotion and creation of opportunities. The authors point out that “the first 40 hours of on-the-job experience make an indelible cultural imprint on employees.”
As for rewards, the book presents the view that in most organizations, they “are far too generous to mediocrity and far too stingy in rewarding superior performance.” Star performers are encouraged to defect, and meanwhile, “the deadwood continues to decay at the company’s expense.”
Reichheld, long associated with U.S. consulting firm Bain & Company, has done extensive research and writing on customer, employee and investor retention. He urges employers not to confuse loyalty with mere tenure.
Previous related books are The Loyalty Effect by the same author, and The Quest for Loyalty, a compendium by leading management thinkers, edited by Reichheld (both published by Harvard Business School Press, 1996).
Accountability Leadership
By Gerald A. Kraines, 221 pages, Career Press, (201) 848-0310, www. careerpress.com. ISBN 1-56414-551-4
Drawing substantially on the thinking of management theorists and writers Elliot Jaques and Harry Levinson, this book is summarized as “How to strengthen productivity through sound managerial leadership.”
The author heads the U.S.-based Levinson Institute, whose mission is to improve the practice of leadership and realize the human potential of organizations. He is also a Harvard Medical School professor and expert on brain chemistry, mental health administration and the role of hierarchy in work systems.
Kraines describes four cornerstones of accountability leadership in the acronym “LEAD”:
•leverage potential;
•engage commitment;
•align judgment; and
•develop capabilities.
He builds on this with discussion of:
•alignment between strategy, structures, processes, systems and people;
•employees who meet all commitments;
•accountable and value-adding managers; and
•a high-performing, market-responsive accountability culture.
The book also explores what goes wrong in teamwork, and what’s required for real team accountability: a team manager who is held accountable for the entire team’s performance, individual accountability on the part of every member, effective planning, measures and decision-making.
Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications
By Larry Smeltzer, Donald Leonard and Geraldine Hynes, 2nd edition, 316 pages, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca ISBN 0-256-17081-9
Published as a college- and university-level textbook, Managerial Communication is a useful resource for trainers and internal consultants responsible to help individuals or teams improve their communication skills.
The introductory section provides a conceptual overview of the communication process in an organization, including the effects of technology, competition, the drive for quality, diversity and ethics.
Next in line are managerial writing strategies including individual and collaborative writing, principles for selecting and organizing words effectively, writing letters, memos and reports and use of visual aids in presentations.
The book also deals with listening skills:
•active listening;
•interactive listening through judicious use of questions; and
•creating a listening climate.
It tackles non-verbal communication, including dress, voice, space and signs of deception.
Several practical management activities are covered in specific chapters:
•strategic considerations for meetings;
•preparation and delivery of formal presentations;
•negotiation strategies, messages, environment, media and timing;
•conflict resolution and problem-solving; and
•intercultural managerial communication.
There’s also a chapter covering interviewing, especially for employment and performance review purposes. Barriers to effective interviews include differing intentions, bias, confusing facts with inferences, nonverbal communication, organizational status and effects of first impressions. Helpful guidance for improving interviews includes clarification of objectives, the best place to conduct the interview, the questioning strategy (types and sequence of questions), how to begin, and how to close.
Ray Brillinger is a senior consultant with the IBM Consulting Group. He provides change management, business transformation and organization effectiveness services to client organizations. He can be reached at (905) 316-8733 or [email protected].
The topics are timely in today’s work environment:
•management of professionals, both as individuals and as teams, in the context of projects, billable client work or ongoing corporate responsibilities;
•building loyalty, retention and valuable commitment among employees, as well as customers and investors;
•a focus on clear accountability as a foundation for strong management, employee and team performance; and
•everybody’s favourite and perennial challenge: communication, specifically in the managerial role and environment.
First Among Equals: How to manage a group of professionals
By Patrick McKenna and David Maister, 288 pages (2002), Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2551-1
It’s a role long familiar to principals in consulting firms, partners in law firms, team leaders in software engineering or finance, marketing and project managers — providing leadership to people who are more like “peers” than subordinates, professionals who are knowledgeable, independent, self-motivated, and sometimes difficult to work with.
The issues include leading while also being a contributor and doer, balancing individual and team requirements, responding to widely different styles, maintaining an effective group size, dealing with prima donnas and large egos and developing a culture of success.
The authors are seasoned experts on management of professional services firms. McKenna is based in Edmonton, Maister in Boston. They’ve written a “playbook” full of practical tips and examples, ideas for handling stressful day-to-day situations and an approach to coaching that recognizes the importance of both individual and group focus and relationships.
The book emphasizes the need to build a relationship with each individual before dealing with a group:
•win permission to coach;
•listen to build rapport;
•help underperformers;
•deal with high achievers who are also rebels, complainers, obnoxious and/or arrogant; and
•build support for change.
Then, turn attention to managing the team:
•clarify group goals;
•build team trust;
•throw down a challenge;
•energize meetings;
•give recognition; and
•resolve conflicts and crises.
Another section of the book deals with preparing for the future through integrating new people and nurturing juniors. A comprehensive chapter on measuring group results outlines a full scorecard approach encompassing group self-evaluation and leader evaluation by the group, client satisfaction, financial performance and other relevant criteria.
Readers will find numerous frameworks and checklists to guide the leader’s efforts:
•assessing a group’s effectiveness;
•profiling where a leader does, and should, spend time;
•terms of engagement in taking on a leadership role;
•understanding the leadership role as a “trusted advisor”;
•what to do each week in order to maintain relationships; and
•establishing group rules of conduct and standards.
McKenna and Maister offer some real challenges: define the group leader role by agreement with those you supervise and those you report to, base performance reviews not only on individual contributions but also on contributing to the success of others, include team members in decision-making.
Loyalty Rules!
By Frederick F. Reichheld, 213 pages (2001), Harvard Business School Press. At bookstores or 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca ISBN 1-57851-205-0
Subtitled “How today’s leaders build lasting relationships”, this book addresses the following challenge:
“Fewer than half of today’s employees believe that their companies deserve their loyalty. Web-empowered customers now defect more easily and more quickly than ever. Has loyalty become an outdated notion in today’s marketplace?”
The book is organized around six principles for enhancing loyalty across three key stakeholder groups: employees, customers and investors:
1. Play to win/win: profiting at a partner’s expense is a shortcut to a dead end.
2. Be picky: membership is a privilege.
3. Keep it simple: complexity is the enemy of speed and flexibility.
4. Reward the right results: worthy partners deserve worthy goals.
5. Listen hard, talk straight: long-term relationships require honest, two-way communication and learning.
6. Preach what you practice: actions often speak louder than words, but together they are unbeatable.
Harley-Davidson, Dell, Cisco Systems, the New York Times and Northwestern Mutual are among the companies whose practices and culture are profiled as positive role models of loyalty leadership in the new economy.
HR readers will be interested in the focus on employee relationships: selection, promotion and creation of opportunities. The authors point out that “the first 40 hours of on-the-job experience make an indelible cultural imprint on employees.”
As for rewards, the book presents the view that in most organizations, they “are far too generous to mediocrity and far too stingy in rewarding superior performance.” Star performers are encouraged to defect, and meanwhile, “the deadwood continues to decay at the company’s expense.”
Reichheld, long associated with U.S. consulting firm Bain & Company, has done extensive research and writing on customer, employee and investor retention. He urges employers not to confuse loyalty with mere tenure.
Previous related books are The Loyalty Effect by the same author, and The Quest for Loyalty, a compendium by leading management thinkers, edited by Reichheld (both published by Harvard Business School Press, 1996).
Accountability Leadership
By Gerald A. Kraines, 221 pages, Career Press, (201) 848-0310, www. careerpress.com. ISBN 1-56414-551-4
Drawing substantially on the thinking of management theorists and writers Elliot Jaques and Harry Levinson, this book is summarized as “How to strengthen productivity through sound managerial leadership.”
The author heads the U.S.-based Levinson Institute, whose mission is to improve the practice of leadership and realize the human potential of organizations. He is also a Harvard Medical School professor and expert on brain chemistry, mental health administration and the role of hierarchy in work systems.
Kraines describes four cornerstones of accountability leadership in the acronym “LEAD”:
•leverage potential;
•engage commitment;
•align judgment; and
•develop capabilities.
He builds on this with discussion of:
•alignment between strategy, structures, processes, systems and people;
•employees who meet all commitments;
•accountable and value-adding managers; and
•a high-performing, market-responsive accountability culture.
The book also explores what goes wrong in teamwork, and what’s required for real team accountability: a team manager who is held accountable for the entire team’s performance, individual accountability on the part of every member, effective planning, measures and decision-making.
Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications
By Larry Smeltzer, Donald Leonard and Geraldine Hynes, 2nd edition, 316 pages, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca ISBN 0-256-17081-9
Published as a college- and university-level textbook, Managerial Communication is a useful resource for trainers and internal consultants responsible to help individuals or teams improve their communication skills.
The introductory section provides a conceptual overview of the communication process in an organization, including the effects of technology, competition, the drive for quality, diversity and ethics.
Next in line are managerial writing strategies including individual and collaborative writing, principles for selecting and organizing words effectively, writing letters, memos and reports and use of visual aids in presentations.
The book also deals with listening skills:
•active listening;
•interactive listening through judicious use of questions; and
•creating a listening climate.
It tackles non-verbal communication, including dress, voice, space and signs of deception.
Several practical management activities are covered in specific chapters:
•strategic considerations for meetings;
•preparation and delivery of formal presentations;
•negotiation strategies, messages, environment, media and timing;
•conflict resolution and problem-solving; and
•intercultural managerial communication.
There’s also a chapter covering interviewing, especially for employment and performance review purposes. Barriers to effective interviews include differing intentions, bias, confusing facts with inferences, nonverbal communication, organizational status and effects of first impressions. Helpful guidance for improving interviews includes clarification of objectives, the best place to conduct the interview, the questioning strategy (types and sequence of questions), how to begin, and how to close.
Ray Brillinger is a senior consultant with the IBM Consulting Group. He provides change management, business transformation and organization effectiveness services to client organizations. He can be reached at (905) 316-8733 or [email protected].
