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The Little Black Book for Managers: How to Maximize Your Key Management Moments of Power

The Little Black Book for Managers: How to Maximize Your Key Management Moments of Power

by Kevin Money, Rafael Gomez, John Cross
Publisher: Capstone
Release Date: October 2013
ISBN: 9781118744222
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Book Description

A smart, small book for any manager's pocket.

In every manager's career there are moments where decisions need to be made in order to achieve success and this smart, nicely packaged little book can be there to help each time. The trick to succeeding in these moments is to identify each of these situations ahead of time and understand how to act and what to do to reduce the chances of failure. That is exactly what The Little Black Book for Managers has done. The authors have listed a whole host of situations most managers face, based on thousands of personal experiences, and have mapped out how to deal with each situation. The book contains specific examples of words and phrases that can be used as well as illustrations and exercises to analyse your current performance. It is short on waffle and high on practical wisdom. It is designed to be dipped in and out of - reached for whenever a situation arises. This is a practical support tool for managers at all levels, from shop-floor supervisor to main board director.

The Little Black Book for Managers explains how to deal with scenarios such as;

  • Having a lack of confidence to deal with other people in the way that is needed

  • Times when you have to assert your authority more

  • Allocating critical work. Who to choose?

  • Needing to get extra effort from the team when under pressure

  • Incentivising

  • Delegation

  • Having to deal with under-performers

  • Personality clashes between work colleagues

  • Managing a meeting with senior leaders

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Endorsements
  3. Copyright page
  4. Title page
  5. Foreword
  6. Introduction
  7. Part One: Your Rewarding Job
    1. 1: Your Responsibilities
      1. 1.1 Ignore your job description
      2. 1.2 Embrace your role as a soccer coach and an orchestra conductor
      3. 1.3 Focus on customer satisfaction
    2. 2: Your Goals
      1. 2.1 Let your people set their own objectives
      2. 2.2 Try not to set targets
      3. 2.3 Identify performance potential
    3. 3: Your Performance
      1. 3.1 Have up-to-date performance statistics at your fingertips
      2. 3.2 Draw an activity tree
      3. 3.3 Don't shy away from making or recommending big investments
      4. 3.4 Prepare for the possibility that every action you take, may inadvertently create an equal and opposite reaction
    4. 4: Your Messages
      1. 4.1 Create sticky headline messages
      2. 4.2 Change behaviours
      3. 4.3 Don't underestimate the costs or timescales of any changes
      4. 4.4 Do good
  8. Part Two: It's All About You
    1. 5: Your Focus
      1. 5.1 Inspire them!
      2. 5.2 Spend more time managing, less time operating
      3. 5.3 Focus on your strengths, don't dwell on your weaknesses
    2. 6: Your Time
      1. 6.1 Invest your time – don't spend it!
      2. 6.2 Protect yourself against time stealers
      3. 6.3 Listen more than you talk
      4. 6.4 Infect everyone around you with your upbeat mood and positive attitude
    3. 7: Your Image
      1. 7.1 Forget about being liked
      2. 7.2 Don't undermine yourself
      3. 7.3 Share your issues and problems
      4. 7.4 Express your opinion – otherwise others will assume you don't have one
    4. 8: Your Ideas
      1. 8.1 Expect your ideas to be ridiculed
      2. 8.2 Start and finish intriguingly
      3. 8.3 Make your actions speak louder than your words
      4. 8.4 Collect “yeses”
      5. 8.5 Under promise and over deliver
  9. Part Three: Your Team Is What You Make It
    1. 9: Your Interactions
      1. 9.1 Make your employees happy!
      2. 9.2 Don't wait until they knock on your door
      3. 9.3 Give and show more trust
      4. 9.4 Be willing to give people more responsibility than they (or you) expect
    2. 10: Your Authority
      1. 10.1 Use your authority wisely
      2. 10.2 Sell the need for change before the change
      3. 10.3 Listen for silence
      4. 10.4 Deal swiftly with conflict and personality clashes
    3. 11: Your Successes and Failures
      1. 11.1 Build confidence by reacting to team wins and team losses appropriately
      2. 11.2 Celebrate advances fairly
      3. 11.3 Stop rumours by sharing the brutal truth early
      4. 11.4 Don't shoot the messenger
    4. 12: Your Meetings
      1. 12.1 Don't buy in team building events – do them yourself
      2. 12.2 Encourage your people to put on the Six Thinking Hats
      3. 12.3 Use brainstorming and Mind Mapping to generate lots of ideas and options
      4. 12.4 Deal with disruptive behaviour
    5. 13: Your People
      1. 13.1 Talk about the different generations
      2. 13.2 Understand the Specialists and Plants of the Belbin model
      3. 13.3 Don't assume that you get the full picture from those far away
      4. 13.4 Don't tolerate a warm body
  10. Part Four: Your Talented Staff
    1. 14: Their Personalities
      1. 14.1 It's your duty to kick and pat!
      2. 14.2 Spread understanding of different attitudes and behaviours through MBTI
      3. 14.3 Put yourself forward for a 360˚
      4. 14.4 Know when to adapt or innovate
      5. 14.5 Recruit the person and not the CV/résumé
    2. 15: Their Reactions
      1. 15.1 Don't improve the plan if it loses their commitment
      2. 15.2 Let your people see the end results of their efforts
      3. 15.3 Watch out for signs of stress
    3. 16: Their Motivations
      1. 16.1 Prioritize team awards over individual recognition
      2. 16.2 Don't treat people the way you wish to be treated
      3. 16.3 Rethink the idea of incentives
      4. 16.4 Give more than money
      5. 16.5 Know when it's time for the stick!
    4. 17: Their Talents
      1. 17.1 Recognize their number one talent
      2. 17.2 Let your people make mistakes!
      3. 17.3 Ask, don't tell!
      4. 17.4 Delegate more often as a sign of the trust you have in others!
    5. 18: Their Behaviours
      1. 18.1 Be on your guard for monkeys!
      2. 18.2 Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness
      3. 18.3 Just say “no” to micromanagement
      4. 18.4 “I feel that …”
    6. 19: Their Career Changes
      1. 19.1 Deal with difficult people
      2. 19.2 Consider if a change of culture is needed
      3. 19.3 Accept that sometimes they have to go
      4. 19.4 Accept when it's time for you to move on
  11. Conclusion
  12. Further Reading
  13. About the Authors
  14. Acknowledgements
  15. Index