Becoming an Extraordinary Manager: The 5 Essentials for Success

By Len Sandler

Book Overview

Nearly all managers dream of being inspiring leaders who elicit the most from their people. But while they may understand the skills needed to manage their teams, very few know how to put their knowledge into practice. Now, any manager can get exceptional results and make an important contribution to the organization. Becoming an Extraordinary Manager focuses not just on "understanding" principles of good management, but on taking action. Readers will learn the basic attitude and skills outstanding managers must know, including: - why it's critical to be interested in, rather than interesting to, their people - the best ways to motivate their team - effective interviewing techniques - conducting a performance review - time management - introducing change - delegation - thinking and acting about their people positively (the self-fulfilling prophecy) - building a high-performance team - retaining top talent - handling performance problems - listening Lively in style and thorough in content, this is the book that gives every manager a complete guide to avoiding the ordinary and becoming the best.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814480659
• ISBN13: 9780814480656
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Amacom
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 17 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Easy read, no creepy management buzz-words

I was a software developer for 15 years before managing my first team. The last thing I want is to read about "synergy". It just brings back all the pain inflicted by so-so managers I've had in the past. I would really like to be someone my employees appreciate, respect and most importantly trust. Words I wish management spent more time trying to understand, and less time trying to "leverage." I received this book as a part of a one day class on managing remote teams (this book focuses on general management practices). It is direct and insightful and exactly what I needed as a novice manager to get my feet on solid ground. I was paticularly happy with Len's approach to performance management, and having now applied a strategy where performance is evaluated throughout the year, and where the final review is done in partnership and scored in agreement rather than me placing arbitray numeric values on things like "integrity" that simply aren't measured that way. I've been doing this for 2 years now and it works incredibly well - it is a long term approach that creates a vital trust between me and my employees. Len Sandler is clear, concise and direct. He is in every way what a good manager should be, and reading his book will help you - unless you are looking for fun new phrases to drop in your next managers luncheon.