Understanding and Changing Your Management Style: Assessments and Tools for Self-Development, 2nd Edition

Understanding and Changing Your Management Style: Assessments and Tools for Self-Development, 2nd Edition

by Robert C. Benfari
Released July 2013
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9781118399460

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Book description

An update of the classic book that reveals the 6 keys to successful management In this new edition of his best-selling book, Robert Benfari explains that the best mangers are not born that way but share a mix of characteristics that can be analyzed, understood, and most importantly changed. He identifies the six characteristics of successful managers (Psychological Type; Needs/Motivation; Use of Power; Conflict Style; Our Basic Values; and Our Reaction to Stress) and uses these building blocks to show how anyone can use personality-specific strategies for resolving conflicts, solving problems, managing stress, handling difficult situations at work, and positively influencing others.

  • Includes a proven pathway for becoming an effective manager

  • Contains new information on management style and leadership, human nature and neuroscience, and the dark side of management

  • Includes a self-assessment for each of the six building blocks to successful management

This research-based book offers the tools leaders need to improve their management style and succeed in the workplace.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Additional Content Available Online
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Preface
  6. About the Author
  7. Introduction: What Leaders and Managers Need to Know About Human Nature
    1. A Model of Human Nature
    2. How the Brain Works and Constraints on Productivity
    3. The Role of Emotion
    4. Cognitive Flaws
    5. The Six Building Blocks of Management Style
    6. Putting It All Together
  8. Chapter One: Assumptions, Perceptions, and Feelings
    1. The Basis of Our Assumptions, Perceptions, and Feelings
    2. How We Know What We Know
    3. Assumptions: What We Take for Granted
    4. Perception: How We Interpret Experience
    5. Feelings: How We React to our Perceptions
    6. Assumptions, Perceptions, and Feelings at Work: A Case Study
    7. Changing Your Mind Changes Everything
    8. Using Coping Mechanisms
    9. Countering Negative Thoughts and Beliefs
    10. Shifting your Perceptions as a Manager
    11. Cognitive Restructuring and the Elements of Management Style
    12. Conclusion
  9. PRE - CHAPTER 2 ACTIVITY: What Is My Psychological Type?
  10. Chapter Two: Psychological Type
    1. The Background
    2. The Model
    3. Using the Sixteen MBTI Types in Management
    4. Strengthening and Developing Psychological Type
    5. A Case of Balancing Psychological Type
    6. Psychological Type and Key Management Activities
    7. Psychological Type and Values
  11. PRE - CHAPTER 3 ACTIVITY: What Are My Needs?
  12. Chapter Three: Needs
    1. The Need for Needs
    2. The Big Three: Overall Management Needs
    3. More than the Sum: Combinations of Overall Management Needs
    4. Managing Up and Down: Boss-Subordinate Needs
    5. When Needs Collide: Fusion and Crossed Signals
    6. Needs and the Psychological Types
    7. A Case of Restructuring Needs
    8. Conclusion
  13. PRE - CHAPTER 4 ACTIVITY: What Are My Power Bases?
  14. Chapter Four: The Bases of Power
    1. The Manager's Power Bases
    2. Effective Use of Power
    3. The Hermes Case—Misperceptions and Power
    4. Conclusion
  15. PRE - CHAPTER 5 ACTIVITY: What Is My Conflict Style?
  16. Chapter Five: Conflict
    1. Sources of Conflict in Organizations
    2. Styles of Managing Conflict
    3. What it Takes to Handle the Tasks of Conflict Resolution
    4. Crisis at Ultra University: A Case in Point
  17. Chapter Six: Values
    1. Where do Values Come From?
    2. Managers' Primary Values: Are They Enough?
    3. Examining Our Assumptions About Life
    4. Clarifying What's Most Important
    5. Organizational Values: The Ideal and the Real
    6. Clarifying Values in the Organization
    7. Comparisons of Values Among Managerial Samples
    8. Another View of Values: A Global Existential Approach
  18. PRE - CHAPTER 7 ACTIVITY: What Is My Stress Quotient?
    1. Summary of the Stress Assessments
  19. Chapter Seven: Stress
    1. Challenges and Threats: Rethinking Stress
    2. Stress at Work
    3. Relaxation Techniques
    4. Organizational Pains in the Neck: Stress Carriers
    5. The Psychological Types and Stress
    6. Coping Patterns for Stress Reduction: A Case Study
    7. Conclusion
  20. Chapter Eight: Management Scenarios
    1. PHIL, CARLO, and LOIS
    2. Luxor Case—Needs and Power
    3. PHIL, CARLO, and LOIS Revisited
    4. Luxor Case Conclusion
  21. Chapter Nine: Integration of the Building Blocks
    1. Case History Example
    2. Your Own Case History
  22. Bibliography
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Understanding and Changing Your Management Style: Assessments and Tools for Self-Development, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Robert C. Benfari
  • Release date: July 2013
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9781118399460