Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power, More Purpose, and More Success

Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power, More Purpose, and More Success

by Vince Thompson
Released March 2007
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780131492486

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

“Thompson rolls up his sleeves and provides managers a vision and road map to inspire organizational change and personal success.”

–Chris Gorog, Chairman & CEO Napster

THE BUSINESS BOOK FOR THE REST OF US

Ah, the life of a manager. You’re squeezed between the needs of your corporation, your team, your customers, and your colleagues. Whatever your day-to-day realities, you can achieve far greater power, purpose, and success–Ignited will show you how.

“With a real-world view of what it's like to lead in limited space, Thompson shows middle managers how to access their true power and purpose to achieve the work life they've always dreamed of. This book really delivers on its promise to Ignite the magnificence of all.”

–Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager ® and Leading at a Higher Level

“Brilliant; this is the best management book of the year. Jammed with vital takeaway value for managers, it should also be required reading and a sobering look-in-the-mirror for every business owner and CEO. This breakthrough work absolutely sparkles!”

–Jason Jennings, bestselling author of It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small–It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow, Less Is More, and Think Big–ACT Small

“Ignited speaks to managers in a way that I’ve seen no other business book do before. With sharp insights and an authentic understanding of our roles, Thompson demonstrates how managers can create the future. With Ignited you’ll get the big ideas that spark as well as the fuel to get you there.”

–Brad Simmons, Senior Director Partnership Marketing, Experian

“Like a demolition expert, Thompson craftfully implodes America's old school management chain and shines the light on the hero in American business: the Manager. I was amazed at the immediacy in which you can apply the information in Ignited! Read this book and re-light the fire in your career, your company, and with everyone you come into contact with.”

–W. Grant Eppler, Divisional Sales Manager–West, Heinz—Portion Pac

“If you want to change the world, you've gotta take a stand. With Ignited Vince Thompson does just that, showing managers how, in this time of reinvention and chaos, they can rise above the constraints to put the heart and soul back into business. This book and its lessons have the power to change your life and propel your career. Read it, Live it, and Be Ignited!”

–Erin Brockovich, Advocate, Author, and Speaker

More Power, More Purpose, and More Success for Managers

Have you ever been maligned, misunderstood, downsized, reengineered, reorganized, or even misled? Even in the best organizations, you face brutal competition, non-stop pressure, and relentless change.

Ignited reveals the gathering forces that will offer you unprecedented opportunities to reshape your career and organization. It outlines clear, realistic steps for leveraging your networks and resources to transform your vision into reality, and accomplish powerful goals only you can achieve. This is not another diatribe on leadership or grand strategic vision written by those already at the top: the Jack Welches or Rudy Giulianis who can simply dictate their visions to the organization. Ignited is for those leading from the middle: managers who need real tools to make a real difference. If you’re ready to take back your business, your career, and your life, Ignited is for you.

More Power

  • Learn how to lead in a limited space

  • Power up your network, expand your influence

  • Overcome the traps of time, powerlessness, and negative emotions

  • Drive meaningful strategic change across your company and industry

    • More Purpose

  • Harness the power of seven key ignition points for achieving your highest purpose

  • Accomplish the powerful goals you’re uniquely positioned to achieve

  • Master the new roles of linkmaker, process master, pilot, healer, bard, scout, and translator

  • Connect your personal passions with your company’s goals

    • More Success

  • Master a system for selling your vision, and succeeding with the projects you’re most passionate about

  • Live your best life, not just your company’s

    • INTRODUCTION: LIVING IN QUAKE COUNTRY  1
    BASE CAMP: THE IGNITED QUIZ  13 
    Part I GET MORE POWER
    1 ACTION WITH TRACTION  19
    2 THE MANAGER’S UNIVERSE  39
    3 LEADERSHIP IN LIMITED SPACE  57
    4 MANAGING YOUR EMOTIONS  79
    5 THE DEADLY LACK OF EMPOWERMENT TRAP  97
    Part II GET MORE PURPOSE
    6 IGNITION POINT 1: THE PROCESS  117
    7 IGNITION POINT 2: THE PEOPLE  137
    8 IGNITION POINT 3: THE MESSAGE  153
    9 IGNITION POINT 4: THE LANDSCAPE  167
    10 IGNITION POINT 5: THE STRATEGY  187
    11 IGNITON POINT 6: THE STORY  207
    12 IGNITION POINT 7: THE SPIRIT  227
    Part  III GET MORE SUCCESS
    13 SELLING FROM THE FULCRUM  247
    14 YOUR OWN SENSE OF BALANCE  271
    INDEX  281

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
      1. Dedication
    2. Praise for Ignited
    3. FT Press Financial Times
    4. Acknowledgments
    5. About the Author
    6. Introduction: Living in Quake Country
      1. Is This You?
      2. Quake Country
      3. Sorry, We Seem to Have a Bad Connection
      4. So Why Do We Do This?
      5. Getting Ignited
      6. The Fulcrum
      7. Getting Ignited
    7. Base Camp: The Ignited Quiz
      1. The Ignited Quiz
    8. I. Get More Power
      1. 1. Action with Traction
        1. Banging Pots
        2. The Problem with Time Management
        3. Managing Your Managers
        4. Needs Explicit and Needs Implicit
        5. Management Value Added
        6. Bridging an Unbridgeable Gap
        7. Knowing versus Doing—Traction versus Slippage
        8. The Good Business Reason—Designing Your Project Portfolio
        9. Making Teams Work—Controlling the Cave People
        10. The Rest of the Cast of Characters: The Committed and the Compliant
        11. Using Technology to Assure Accountability and Create Traction
        12. Maintaining Traction
      2. 2. The Manager’s Universe
        1. Relationships—The Sum Total of Any Business
        2. Map Your Universe in Five Easy Steps
        3. How and When to Use the Manager’s Universe Map
        4. Using the Manager’s Universe as a Communications Tool
        5. Understanding Your Boss’s Universe
        6. Igniting Your Network
        7. Networking as Understanding People’s Needs
        8. In Search of Nodes
        9. The Need for Speed
        10. Bosses: Stars, Comets, and the Power of the Network
      3. 3. Leadership in Limited Space
        1. The Leadership Dilemma
        2. Authenticity and Trust
        3. Transparency and Consistency
        4. Defining Honesty
        5. Playing It Straight
        6. The New Golden Rule
        7. Making the Little Things Count
        8. Resilience, Optimism, and the Leadership Quest
      4. 4. Managing Your Emotions
        1. Road Rage in the Marketing Department
        2. Emotional Intelligence
        3. Your Bigger Yes
        4. Your Own Bigger Yes
        5. Fending Off the Fear-Mongers: Amplification and Compression
        6. Keeping Your Balance between Your Company and Your Team
        7. On the Road Again
      5. 5. The Deadly Lack of Empowerment Trap
        1. The Self-Empowered Manager
        2. Everybody’s Favorite Excuse
        3. Seizing the Tools of Empowerment
        4. The Wagon Train Effect
        5. Sources of Power
        6. Igniting the Power of Change
        7. The Power of Righteousness
    9. II. Get More Purpose
      1. 6. Ignition Point 1: The Process
        1. More Purpose: The Ignition Points for Managers in the Middle
        2. The Power of the Process Master
        3. Harnessing Knowpower
        4. How Do You Fix the Processes? Try Asking
        5. Collaboration in the Middle
        6. Change Happens at the Intersections
        7. Making Mergers Work through the Insights of the Process Masters
      2. 7. Ignition Point 2: The People
        1. The Power of the Linkmaker
          1. What the Linkmaker Knows
          2. Igniting the Network
        2. How Linkmakers Build and Use Their Networks
        3. Leadership, Management, and the Secret of People Power
        4. The Essential Ingredient: Trust
      3. 8. Ignition Point 3: The Message
        1. The Power of the Translator
        2. How the Ignited Manager Can Create and Sell a Saving Message
          1. Translating Tribal Dialects
          2. Translating Up the Pipeline
          3. When the Message Is Unwelcome
        3. Above All, Clarity
      4. 9. Ignition Point 4: The Landscape
        1. The Power of the Scout
        2. Knowing Why They Buy: Understanding the Customer Landscape
        3. The Scout as Educator
        4. Making Customers into Partners
        5. Learning from Your Vendors
          1. Bose and JIT II—A Manager in the Middle Transforms Vendor Relationships
        6. Using the Internet to Scan and Master Your Landscape
      5. 10. Ignition Point 5: The Strategy
        1. The Problem with Strategy
          1. The Power of the Pilot
          2. Updating a Legacy for the Twenty-First Century
        2. Being Cassandra
        3. Making the Pieces Fit: The Manager in the Middle as Strategic Linchpin
        4. Creating Business in the White Space
        5. Creating Your Own Strategic Space
      6. 11. Ignition Point 6: The Story
        1. The Power of the Bard
        2. Change for the Sake of Change
        3. The Value of Memory
        4. Using Stories to Motivate and Inspire
        5. Muscle Memory and Thinking in Time
        6. Reconnecting the Threads of History
        7. What Kind of Movie Are You In?
          1. Finding Your Roots
      7. 12. Ignition Point 7: The Spirit
        1. The Power of the Healer
        2. Getting Serious About Motivation
        3. Making Positives Out of Negatives
        4. Insight and Courage
        5. When Emotional Deafness Can Kill
        6. Leading with the Heart
    10. III. Get More Success
      1. 13. Selling from the Fulcrum
        1. Shift Happens
        2. Success Is a Verb
          1. First, Examine Your Motives
          2. Problem-Solving Mode: Being an Internal Consultant
          3. Working the Plan
          4. Selling the Plan
          5. The Wrong and Right Ways to Sell
          6. Building Value for the Solution
        3. Selling to the Top
      2. 14. Your Own Sense of Balance
        1. What’s It All For?
        2. The Keys to True Balance
        3. Balance for the Long Haul
        4. You Get More When You Give More
        5. Conclusion

    Product information

    • Title: Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power, More Purpose, and More Success
    • Author(s): Vince Thompson
    • Release date: March 2007
    • Publisher(s): Pearson
    • ISBN: 9780131492486