Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)

by Erika Andersen (Author) "This is where the gardening metaphor kicks in..." (more)
Key Phrases: coaching options, management decision tree, production specs, Social Style, Central Region, Listening Skill (more...)

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 the Hardcover edition.

Review
A most readable, insightful, and thorough treatment, filled with common sense and practical examples. A must read for all managers interested in growing their people. -- W. Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game of Work

Believe me when I say you can take four full semesters of 'management' in business school, or you can simply read, keep, and refer to Growing Great Employees. 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 of work in which people are so fulfilled and so productive that they achieve superior results. -- James A. Autry, author of The Servant Leader

For the past twenty-five years, Erika Andersen has been working with companies to make sure that employees achieve their true potential. In Growing Great Employees, Erika is sharing that practical, smart, soup-to-nuts insight on how to be the best kind of manager with a broader public. -- Geraldine Laybourne, president and CEO, Oxygen Networks

Growing Great Employees is like having an expert at your side; one whose clear-headed lessons provide a nutrient-rich roadmap for perennially winning at business. -- Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group and author of Setting The Table

Growing Great Employees…creates the sense that you’ve got somebody with you every step of the way, somebody who knows what you’re up against and can help you be the kind of manager and leader you want to be. -- Doug Herzog, president, Entertainment Group MTVN

In Growing Great Employees, [Erika’s] offered a comprehensive guide to being a fun, smart and effective manager—the kind of manager that any company would love to have. -- Leo Kiely, president and CEO, Molson Coors Brewing Company

The consummate ‘how to’ manual for choosing and nurturing great employees. Erika's techniques are practical and highly effective and this is a powerful tool for creating a stable and innovative work environment. Read it and watch your staff blossom! -- Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, president and CEO, Women in Cable Telecommunications --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (December 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591841518
• ASIN: B000X1N3O6
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #614,648 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 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 (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Charles Decker (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (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.

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 (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (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.