Keeping Employees Accountable for Results: Quick Tips for Busy Managers [Paperback]

Brian Cole Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2006

"All managers want to hold their employees accountable for results, but few know how. Moving beyond the far-from-ideal annual performance review -- which only evaluates what has already occurred, and not what the manager wants to achieve -- Keeping Employees Accountable for Resultscontains checklists, how-tos, and other tools to manage performance on an ongoing basis. The book gives busy managers quick, step-by-step advice on: * Setting expectations * Monitoring progress * Giving feedback * Following through Light on theory and heavy on practical application, Keeping Employees Accountable for Results gives time-pressed managers the proven, practical information they need to help their people accomplish more."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent primer. The format is user-friendly and packed with guidance not often provided in similar activity resources."

-- Lee Smedley, Training Media Review

"A simple way to build teams by engaging participants in learning about themselves and their team players"

-Shirley Copeland, Ed.D, The Facilitator

"Everything is explained so that the exercises can be led by laymen or professionals." - The Midwest Book Review

"...practical book gives supervisors,managers[…]variety of team-boosting exercises,all of which can be implemented with no special facilities,big expense,or previous training experience." - Clinical Leadership & Management Review

Book Description

"All managers want to hold their employees accountable for results, but few know how. Moving beyond the far-from-ideal annual performance review -- which only evaluates what has already occurred, and not what the manager wants to achieve -- Keeping Employees Accountable for Resultscontains checklists, how-tos, and other tools to manage performance on an ongoing basis. The book gives busy managers quick, step-by-step advice on:

* Setting expectations

* Monitoring progress

* Giving feedback

* Following through

Light on theory and heavy on practical application, Keeping Employees Accountable for Results gives time-pressed managers the proven, practical information they need to help their people accomplish more."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1 edition (January 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814473202
• ISBN-13: 978-0814473207
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brian Cole Miller (Dublin, OH) is the principal of Working Solutions, Inc., a management training and consulting firm whose clients include FranklinCovey, Nationwide Insurance, and the UPS Store. He is the author of the best-selling Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers (978-0-8144-7201-9) as well as More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers (978-0-8144-7378-8), and Keeping Employees Accountable for Results (978-0-8144-7320-7).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to Use Handbook, March 2, 2006

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping Employees Accountable for Results: Quick Tips for Busy Managers (Paperback)

Accountability is essential to individual and organizational success, but few leaders know how to make it happen. Consequently, accountability remains at too high a level-far away from the people who really should be accountable for their work. Managers spend far too much of their valuable time chasing after details, progress reports, and hope-it-got-done worries. If there were a way to calculate the value of managerial time wasted because of our accountability deficiency, the cost would be astronomical. If you could calculate the cost to you, personally, it would far exceed the price of this book.

Miller presents his advice in a design that's easy to grasp-complete with anagram. He offers a SIMPLE system: Set expectations, Invite commitment, Measure results, Provide feedback, Link to consequences, and Evaluate effectiveness. Each of these components is explained in its own chapter, following the same format. The principle is presented, followed by an explanation of why it is important, then the how-to. Examples and checklists (good ones at the end of each chapter) strengthen the book's value.

You will gain a considerable amount of worthwhile knowledge, technique, and advice reading this book from cover to cover. However, the strongest benefit will come over time as you use this volume as a reference book, a handbook to return to for refreshers and reinforcement.

Idea: copy relevant items from the end-of-chapter checklists and use them as daily reminders that you're doing what must be done to build and maintain accountability. This is a book you'll want to keep close to your desk as an important companion.

PS-the principles will work in non-business situations, as well.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for the busy manager., February 2, 2006

By 

B. Miller "Small business owner" (Ogunquit, ME) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Keeping Employees Accountable for Results: Quick Tips for Busy Managers (Paperback)

This is fantastic. Miller (great name!!) uses the same style from his first book (also good-Quick Team-building Activities for Busy Manager) and applies it to something much more important: holding your employees accountable. The book is organized so well for the busy manager, that it's almost more like an outline than a traditional book...it's easy to breeze through it, gleaming the points you need, glossing over stuff you already know (and not fear that you're missing anything). BUT, you can also dive deep into detail whenever you want it, or learn from the many examples provided. The steps here are concrete and logical. The flow makes sense...you learn quickly that this is not rocket science...or is it just that Miller knows how to make things seem simple, so the average manager "gets" it and can do it?

Like he warns in the intro, there's not a whole lot of theory here-just the how-to steps with examples and checklists of how to apply them, and then just enough theory to support them without ever bogging you down. So if you accept that up front, you wont miss the theory (which weighs down most other books on this subject, anyway). You'll just appreciate the simple process (which is cool, since he was able to make his 6 step process fit an acronym SIMPLE). If you need some help on holding your employees accountable, and you just need the quick and dirty "just tell me how to do it!" version, this is the book for you! A quick read, to the point, well organized. Miller packs a lot of punch into very few pages. A great resource for the harried manager who wants some help, but quick.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Step-by-step primer for first-time managers, August 7, 2006

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping Employees Accountable for Results: Quick Tips for Busy Managers (Paperback)

If you're about to become a manager for the first time and don't have a clue about how to get your direct reports to do what you want them to do, use this book as a step-by-step primer. It explains what to say, when to say it and how to follow up. It teaches you why meeting and connecting with employees individually is so important if you want to keep them accountable and get results. Author Brian Cole Miller's advice will help you develop your coaching skills. It will also save you a lot of headaches if you're struggling with problem employees. Miller shows you how to work with difficult employees in a way that is supportive, yet puts the ownership of results squarely on the employee's shoulders - where it belongs. If you've just promoted someone to manager, or if you are a new manager, we suggest that you make this book a part of your on-the-job training and development curriculum.