Customer Reviews

Stop Telling. Start Leading! The Art of Managing People by Asking Questions

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(Full disclosure: this book contains a copy of the FunStandard.org which I maintain.) This book should be required reading for anyone thinking of managing or leading people, covering all the things you need to do to succeed, or, in other words, all of the things managers so often don't think about resulting in unnecessary failure. I particularly liked the chapter on building teams, providing a framework for doing so to avoid a mistake that often dooms projects before the first meeting is even held -- haphazard assembly of individuals, mistaking "organization chart" for "team". This book's distilled wisdom will make you a better manager in a very short time.

It is amazing how very simple Stop Telling Start Leading is to understand. The material is in no way inferior, but is presented in such a simple manner, you can read it in one sitting.

-- This message was also posted on MLPF and LinkedIN Lions ---

Most people appreciate the difference grandparents made in their lives. While their parents are much more concerned with how a child should be, their grandparents have the patience to create the space for the child to become who they really are. Basically it is the felt difference between emotional stress and emotional support.

The same is true for management books. Most management book authors are like parents, telling the child how it needs to be. And managers are like children, wanting to live up to expectations. Do you have friends or relatives who are a manager? Do you feel they could use some emotional support? After all, being a manager is quite often a challenge, and sometimes it is more than one can bear. These are the times when they need some kind of support.

Here's the good news. My friend and mentor, Frank Kanu, has published a management book that will bring your manager friend the emotional support (s)he sometimes needs. Here's an example:

"When there's no plan, deadlines are missed, budgets are overextended, customers are unhappy, employees are angry and exhausted, and managers have to clean up the mess." (p128)

I remember the time when i was an employee, and i read "the Dilbert Principle" by Scott Adams. And for the first time in my life i felt the emotional support, coming right out of this book.

This book by Frank Kanu, "Stop Telling... Start Leading !" is such a book. If you would like to give your friend the emotional support that you think (s)he deserves, then by all means, buy the book and give it to her or to him. The book is available from Amazon.com.

As a gift for you, i will throw in a free PDF version of my own book "Bilocality and the inner world of attention". I feel that this way, we've all done just this little extra, to help those who need us most.

Let's continue improving our life and those we care about.
Warmest regards, Ron
http://www.whatisattention.org

This engaging book illustrates the value of questions in developing others, gathering information, and thinking through our daily activities. An easy read filled with good information.

I absolutly liked this book!
The author did a great job explaining what to do and HOW to do it.
It improved my own skills to train and guide employees on an individual basis. And that was beneficial to the whole company.
I highly recommend this book for anyone in a position of leadership, management and even employees with a vision.

The forward and the description indicate that this book might help you communicate better with those who work for you or with you, using a Socratic method of questioning. This is not the case. It gives information about how to classify workers, listen to them and USE them more effectively. The author asks YOU questions as the material is presented to get you to think about how you already do things. This is good stuff but does not offer any communication skills. Also, as soon as you classify someone, you limit them to fulfilling those expectations that you have for them. This method would not likely inspire others to excel.