Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers [Paperback]

Erika Andersen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 18, 2007

How to develop an all-star staff, even if you don’t know the first thing about managing

“Your employees are, like you and me, flawed and hopeful human beings whose success is at least partly dependent on your skill as a manager, human beings who will thrive with skillful and consistent attention and wither without it.”

Erika Andersen has helped some of the best-managed companies in the world develop their employees. Now she explains how to stay ahead of the competition by investing in your people. You’ll discover that:
• Listening is your most powerful asset. Use it to motivate and build commitment.
• Everything you know about interviewing is wrong. Discover what you really need in a potential employee.
• Successful companies hire for keeps. Get people feeling like part of the team from day one.

Whether you’re a first-time manager or a senior executive, Andersen will help you create a dynamic workplace, where the efforts you make today will blossom into success for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The management lessons Andersen distills from her career as a consultant to corporations like MTV and Bank of America are not innovative—most executives have heard about the importance of listening and establishing clear lines of communication. The centerpiece of her technique is a form of personality typing developed in the 1960s to measure workers based on their assertiveness, responsiveness and versatility. Evaluating employees through these "social styles" templates, Andersen promises, will help determine "how they like and need to be managed." Writing in a pleasant, conversational tone, the author begins each chapter with an imagined scene in a garden, establishing an overriding metaphor for her techniques for everything from creating job descriptions to firing underperforming employees. Andersen makes extensive use of worksheets and what-if scenarios to elaborate her points, and summarizes the "big ideas" in each chapter. For rookies, it's a serviceable introduction to the field. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Growing Great Employees is like having an expert at your side, one whose clear-headed lessons provide a nutrient-rich road map for perennially winning at business.”
—Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group, author of Setting the Table

“This book transcends all the theory, fads du jour, and management babble on the current scene and offers simple, straightforward, and, most important, effective steps for creating a community in which people are so fulfilled and so productive that they achieve superior results.”
—James A. Autry, author of The Servant Leader --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Trade; BUS edition (December 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591841909
• ISBN-13: 978-1591841906
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the founding partner of Proteus International, a coaching, consulting and training firm that focuses uniquely on leader readiness (www.proteus-international.com). I coach and advise senior executives at a variety of companies - GE, TJX, NBC Universal, Union Square Hospitality Group, Conde Nast and Gannett, among others. I am also the author of Leading So People Will Follow (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Out-think Your Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change (St. Martin's Press, May 2009), and Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (Portfolio, 2006). I blog at erikaandersen.com and at blogs.forbes.com/erikaandersen/

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting metaphor with even better explanation January 3, 2007

By Craig Matteson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

If you manage people at work or in any organization (even if you are a parent), this book offers a very helpful metaphor in discussing the difficulties in managing people. The title's use of the word growing refers to the idea of a manager as a gardener. The idea is that you can't make people "grow" or even do what you want them to do just because you want them to do it. The author covers the whole cycle of employment (although for families we don't actually hire or fire).

One of the things I like about the metaphor is that a gardener has to do a lot of work to prepare the ground to receive the seeds. If you have ever painted a room, you know that most of the work is in preparing to paint. In the same way, a successful manager has to do a lot of things to set up success in his or her organization before the actual managing of people begins.

Erika Anderson offers five sound principles for the manager as gardener:

1) There is no such thing as a successful one-minute gardener
2) Prepare the soil by listening (I would add that this isn't letting others talk, but actually requires hearing and understanding not only what is being said, but why it is being said.)
3) Maintain the right mindset (that is, just as a gardener doesn't give up or blame the plants if the garden is not coming in the way she wants, the successful manager believes in her ability to coach and develop an employee's potential and help him to develop into what is desired.)
4) Don't be afraid to prune. (This is done to plants to focus growth of a certain kind and direction - employees need this, too. However, just as you can't cut a plant too harshly, you cannot "prune" employees in a way that causes estrangement and anger and actually hinders development....)
5) Re-evaluate when it's not working. (Sometimes a certain kind of plant becomes noxious to the development of the garden. Managers have to be courageous enough to see this and make decisive changes when necessary. Sometimes you need to fire people.)

There is a lot more to the book in explaining these principles in more detail and the kinds of gardening techniques useful in succeeding with each of these principles.

Anderson provides some helpful illustrations, charts, checklists, and anecdotes from both gardening and business management. It reads easily. And if you like the metaphor, it will make the book that much more helpful to you. I think the book can be quite helpful for the person (manager) who finds the metaphor intriguing. It appealed to me. Read more ›

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best January 2, 2007

By Charles Decker

Format:Hardcover

I review books for major business magazines, so I see virtually everything published. As anyone who reads business books knows, there is very little 'new' out there. This book breaks the mold. The author has a wonderful personal style, so the ideas are quite accessible, and the garden metaphor never gets tired. I particularly enjoyed her emphasis on the importance of listening, as so many male managers are taught that THEY are supposed to have the solution to every problem when in fact outcomes are often decided in tandem or in teams. If you can check out the companion website to the book it can be eye-opening.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, something helpful! February 2, 2007

By P. Mitchell

Format:Hardcover

You know what distinguishes this book from pretty much everything else in this category: It's actually helpful. So many of these management books are filled with the obvious or the only-applicable-for-the-salesforce. This has stuff I was using the day I after I read it. My favorites:

1. How to really listen (sounds simple, but we're not usually doing it well). (chapter 1)
2. How to avoid with personality clashes when personalities/style differ, both between employees and between employees and clients. (chapter 6)
3. How to delegate and free up time (that's HOW to do it, not just that we're supposed to do this; already know that, of course). And -- this is what I began seeing just the other day -- how this gets employees to step up. (chapter 8)

Amazon's business book editor recommend the book, too (Titles for a Terrific 2007). Anyway, the book is good if you get to/have to manage people. I even ended up googling the author and found this podcast -- [...]

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book August 17, 2007

By Meredith Wagner & Pat Langer

Format:Hardcover

For nearly a decade, we have been the lucky beneficiaries of Erika Andersen's wisdom and counsel. Her communication style is clear and engaging, and we only wish we could type fast enough to memorialize all her wisdom. We consider having all her great insight in one book as not just a gift to us, but to anyone who wants to sharpen their own business skills and create an outstanding team.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful, Engaging and Powerful Tool! August 13, 2007

By Julianna Hynes

Format:Hardcover

Growing Great Employees is a helpful, engaging and powerful tool for managers to use in building building their staff and their departments. Erika's writing style pulled me in and kept me engaged in this concept of growing great employees. By the time I was finished reading the book, I felt empowered and prepared to better develop people and help them to develop themselves.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and Useful August 13, 2007

By Michael Butler

Format:Hardcover

Clearly written, full of actionable insights and comprehensive. If you want to gain an understanding of what it means to be an effective manager of people, and come away with a framework for putting this knowledge into action in realistic and sensible ways, this is the book for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid, Practical, Usable Advice for Managers and Organizational Leaders August 11, 2007

By K. Kesslin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the few business books I've read that's not only useful, but a joy to read as well. Filled with practical information, it's clear that Andersen is a superb teacher. She not only shares information clearly, but includes many easy to use models, worksheets and assessments throughout the book. You don't just get to read about managing well, you are given ways to try thing out and practice new skills. This book would be great for new managers or for those more experienced looking to round out their people development skills.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Insightful July 16, 2007

By Business Coach

Format:Hardcover

I purchased this book for all of my managers. It reads so well and leaves you wanting to continually pick it up again and again. I would recommend this book to anyone where challenging personalities are involved or if you need to inspire independent contractors to rise to their full potential.