helpful resources and reading
Managing your team’s work
Recommended Reading
At the risk of being self-promotional, we recommend Section 1 of our book,Managing to Change the World. Section I, “Managing the Work,” gives you step-by-step guidance in how to delegate tasks, projects, and broad responsibilities by using clear goals with concrete measures of success. And since beyond the things you discuss explicitly with your staff, there are also thousands of tiny actions that people take every day within your organization, we show you how you can use culture to guide your staff members on those items. And we bring it all together by explaining a couple of easy-to-implement management systems that help you stay on top of it all.
We also recommend…
- On delegation, Stephen R. Covey has great advice inThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change(Free Press 2004). See the section in Habit 3 on “Delegation: Increasing P and PC.”
- On goals, see the chapter on “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” inBuilt to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary CompaniesJames C. Collins和Jerry I. Porras著(Harper Collins 1997)。
- On being deliberate about building your culture, see how Zappos (our favorite online shoe store!) does it in the section on culture in Chapter 5, “Platform for Growth,” in Tony Hsieh’sDelivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose(Business Plus 2010).
Tools from The Management Center
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Managing People
Recommended Reading
Check out Section 2 of our book,Managing to Change the World. Section 2, “Managing the People,” will guide you through how to build a staff of superstars – hiring them, developing them, making sure you hold on to the best, and letting go of those who fall short.
We also recommend…
- First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differentlyby Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (Simon & Schuster 1999) is a fantastic book for managers. In particular, see the following subsections on hiring in Chapter 3: “Skills, Knowledge, and Talents,” “The World According to Talent,” and “Talent: How Great Managers Find It.” Also see “The Art of Tough Love” on firing in Chapter 6.
- On both hiring and firing, see the chapter on “First Who… Then What” in Jim Collins’Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t(Harper Collins 2001).
Tools from The Management Center
Sample Performance Evaluation Form
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Managing Yourself
Recommended Reading
You knew this was coming! But we can’t help it – we’ve got to recommend Section 3 of our book,Managing to Change the World, because we think it’s pretty good! Section 3, “Managing Yourself,” will help you learn how to apply to yourself the same rigor that you (hopefully!) apply to your management of others, including using your time effectively, staying organized, working with your boss, and exercising authority.
We also recommend…
- On staying organized, David Allen’sGetting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity(Penguin Books 2001) is a bible.
- On the personal qualities of great managers, see “Level 5 Leadership” in Jim Collins’Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t(Harper Collins 2001).
- For a very helpful discussion about how to involve your staff in decision-making to increase both buy-in and the likelihood of coming up with a better answer, see “Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy,” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in theHarvard Business Review(January 2003).
Tools from The Management Center
For more tools,sign upfor our email list; roughly monthly, we’ll email you a new selection of resources.