John Adair's: 100 Greatest Ideas for Being a Brilliant Manager

Book description

The first installment in a new series offering straightforward, practical wisdom from a top business guru

John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Management is the first in a new series of titles from the noted business expert. Focused on concise, practical, and straightforward business wisdom, the series offers the kind of real-world insight that business leaders thrive on.

Short, punchy, and packed with real solutions, this book provides 100 proven and effective ideas for business managers, whether they manage a few people or a few hundred, and whether they work for a small firm or a Fortune 100 giant.

  • Proven, practical business wisdom for managers

  • The first in a new series from renowned business authority John Adair

  • Quick bites of business wisdom for everyday management success

For real management wisdom from a proven expert, John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Management offers everything you need to be your brilliant best.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Author's Note
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. PART ONE: Understanding Your Role as Manager
    1. Chapter 1: Sixteen Greatest Ideas for Effective Managership
      1. Idea 1: A brief history of managing and being a manager
      2. Idea 2: Case study – Henri Fayol
      3. Idea 3: Understanding Groups and Organizations
      4. Idea 4: The central functions of leadership and management
      5. Idea 5: Eight functions for brilliant managers to master
      6. Idea 6: Leadership (1) and leadership (2)
      7. Idea 7: Leaders and followers
      8. Idea 8: What gives you the right to manage?
      9. Idea 9: What you have to be or become
      10. Idea 10: What you have to know or learn
      11. Idea 11: Levels of business leadership
      12. Idea 12: Can you manage people?
      13. Idea 13: You don’t need charisma
      14. Idea 14: Case study – Xenophon
      15. Idea 15: Four stages of learning to lead and manage
      16. Idea 16: A vision of excellence
    2. Chapter 2: Eight Greatest Ideas for All Managers
      1. Idea 17: 25 qualities of excellent managers
      2. Idea 18: The good business leader
      3. Idea 19: Integrity
      4. Idea 20: Calm judgement
      5. Idea 21: Foresight
      6. Idea 22: Decisiveness
      7. Idea 23: Imaginative thinking
      8. Idea 24: Intellectual humility
      9. Follow-up test
  8. PART TWO: Managing for High Performance
    1. Chapter 3: Eleven Greatest Ideas for Managership Skills
      1. Idea 25: Defining the task
      2. Idea 26: Thinking clearly about objectives
      3. Idea 27: Planning
      4. Idea 28: The decision-making continuum
      5. Idea 29: The planning/implementation ratio
      6. Idea 30: Briefing
      7. Idea 31: Controlling and coordinating
      8. Idea 32: Evaluating
      9. Idea 33: Supporting
      10. Idea 34: Six principles for motivating others
      11. Idea 35: Setting an example
    2. Chapter 4: Seven Greatest Ideas for Team Leadership
      1. Idea 36: Your role as team leader
      2. Idea 37: Achieving the task – with a team
      3. Idea 38: Building the team
      4. Idea 39: Developing the individual
      5. Idea 40: Case study – John Hunt
      6. Idea 41: Eight hallmarks of a high-performance team
      7. Idea 42: A very short course on leadership
    3. Chapter 5: Ten Greatest Ideas for Operational Business Leaders
      1. Idea 43: The generic role of operational leader
      2. Idea 44: Organizations as communication systems
      3. Idea 45: Information flows
      4. Idea 46: A listening leadership
      5. Idea 47: How to manage meetings
      6. Idea 48: Appraising performance
      7. Idea 49: Case study – Constructive appraisal in action
      8. Idea 50: Six steps for solving problems
      9. Idea 51: Spot your problems early
      10. Idea 52: Seven useful skills for operational leaders
      11. Follow-up test
  9. PART THREE: Managing the Business
    1. Chapter 6: Nine Greatest Ideas for Strategic Leadership Skills
      1. Idea 53: The art of being manager-in-chief
      2. Idea 54: Seven functions of strategic leadership
      3. Idea 55: Giving direction
      4. Idea 56: Strategic thinking and strategic planning
      5. Idea 57: Making it happen
      6. Idea 58: Relating the parts to the whole
      7. Idea 59: Building partnerships
      8. Idea 60: Releasing the corporate spirit
      9. Idea 61: Developing today's and tomorrow's leaders
    2. Chapter 7: Five Greatest Ideas for Practical Business Wisdom
      1. Idea 62: The wisdom of business
      2. Idea 63: The folly of business
      3. Idea 64: Practical wisdom
      4. Idea 65: Integrity in business decisions
      5. Idea 66: To be a manager is a vocation
      6. Follow-up test
  10. PART FOUR: Managing Yourself and Your Time
    1. Chapter 8: Six Greatest Ideas for Managing Your Time
      1. Idea 67: Reflective thinking
      2. Idea 68: Ten principles of time management
      3. Idea 69: Carry out a time audit on yourself
      4. Idea 70: Six organizing ideas to improve time management
      5. Idea 71: Delegate, delegate, delegate
      6. Idea 72: Learn to say no
    2. Chapter 9: Eight Greatest Ideas for Decision Making
      1. Idea 73: The mind at work
      2. Idea 74: How intuitive are you?
      3. Idea 75: Five steps in making a decision
      4. Idea 76: A unisex model
      5. Idea 77: Face the cannons
      6. Idea 78: How to tackle systems problems
      7. Idea 79: People decisions
      8. Idea 80: A rock for decision makers
    3. Chapter 10: Eight Greatest Ideas for Communication Skills
      1. Idea 81: The Communication Star
      2. Idea 82: Six rules for effective public speaking
      3. Idea 83: The art of listening
      4. Idea 84: The model of conversation
      5. Idea 85: Communication and relationships
      6. Idea 86: Important, relevant or interesting
      7. Idea 87: Practical presentation skills
      8. Idea 88: How to handle feedback
    4. Chapter 11: Four Greatest Ideas for Delighting Your Customers
      1. Idea 89: How to create a delighted customer
      2. Idea 90: The art of building up goodwill
      3. Idea 91: How to respond to customer complaints
      4. Idea 92: Don't make promises unless you keep them
      5. Follow-up test
  11. PART FIVE: Managing Positive Change
    1. Chapter 12: Eight Greatest Ideas for Leading Innovation
      1. Idea 93: Successful innovation
      2. Idea 94: Team creativity in action
      3. Idea 95: Harvesting ideas
      4. Idea 96: Ploughing the ground
      5. Idea 97: Market your ideas
      6. Idea 98: Have a practice run
      7. Idea 99: Make change incremental
      8. Idea 100: Communicate to innovate
      9. Follow-up test
  12. Appendix
    1. The 25 qualities of excellent managers (Idea 17)
  13. About John Adair
  14. Index

Product information

  • Title: John Adair's: 100 Greatest Ideas for Being a Brilliant Manager
  • Author(s): John Adair
  • Release date: August 2011
  • Publisher(s): Capstone
  • ISBN: 9780857081780