The title of this new guide to management is something of a pun: it’s tough to be a good manager, and good managers are tough folks. But what makes a good manager? Here, relying on a familiar self-help format, business strategist Martin lays out the 7 qualities of a strong management. For starters, you must communicate clearly—no double-speak, no fibs. You have to be willing to make hard decisions, and stick to them, even when people you may care about are on the other side of the aisle. You have to be, at times, ruthlessly Machiavellian, “identify[ing] exactly the results that matter most at any given time, and determine[ing] actions that produce those results.” Fourth, good managers are flexible; they never become so rigidly tied to one path that they fear innovation or are unreceptive to input from others. Tough managers are team players who always keep the interests and vision of the company in mind. They value collaboration, and encourage—even “force”—it among their colleagues. Finally, they never turn indifferent to the needs of their employees. One of the most radical suggestions is that managers need to be sensitive to the ridiculous number of hours employees now routinely put in. If managers heeded that suggestion alone, the American workplace would be transformed. (
Kirkus Reviews )
You don't need to be told that the world of work is tougher than ever--you live it every day. Faced with shrinking budgets, smaller staffs, shorter deadlines, more demanding customers, and an unrelenting call for innovation and growth, is it any wonder that so many executives and managers surveyed say they feel "highly stressed"? Clearly, the old management paradigms just don't cut it anymore. What's needed is a fresh, bottom-line approach designed for what really works in today's business world. And that's what you get in Tough Management.
Written by New York Times Business bestselling author Chuck Martin, Tough Management arms you with a new way to tackle the tough decisions in today's high-pressure business environment and deliver the results your company needs for sustained growth.
With candid commentaries from top business leaders, Martin reveals how many high-profile companies follow these principles to meet the increasing demands to do more, deliver more, and increase more--while keeping stress low and morale high. More important, he shows you how to put them to work in your organization, right away. You'll learn proven techniques for:
- Using clear and frequent communication to align those who execute strategies with those who create them
- Making the tough decisions in a timely and constructive manner
- Prioritizing results, identifying actions needed to achieve them, and building consensus on what it will take to get the job done
- Changing direction at a moment's notice in order to keep pace with changing customer and company needs
- Becoming an indispensable asset by aligning more closely with company values
- Fostering teamwork, total information sharing, and a learning culture
- Keeping morale high by rewarding good work and giving people everything they need to do their best
The choice is yours: continue to do things the old-fashioned way and risk job (and career) burnout or adopt a bold new approach to managing designed for the realities of the twenty-first-century workplace. If the second option sounds good to you, then read this book. Because, when the going gets tough, smart managers practice Tough Management.
Management redefined for the twenty-first century--from a New York Times Business bestselling author
Based on more than two years of surveys of more than 2,000 senior executives and managers globally, Tough Management delivers proven solutions to the challenges managers face in the pressure cooker of the modern workplace.
Bestselling author, weekly columnist, and sought-after speaker Chuck Martin has tapped into his research firm's extensive network of business connections to discover that the vast majority of executives and managers are experiencing record levels of work stress. On the bright side, Martin also has discovered that tough times have brought out the best in the world's most successful business leaders. Now, in his groundbreaking new book, he distills his findings into a tough new bottom-line approach to managing for the new millennium.
Leaving abstract theorizing to the academics, the author delivers down-in-the-trenches solutions to the challenges you face every day. He describes a set of powerful principles and best practices used by managers at top-performing companies to do more, deliver more, and grow more--while keeping stress levels to a minimum. With the help of candid commentaries from business leaders at IBM, Northern Trust, Mercer, Merrill Lynch, Lucent, and DuPont, he schools you in the seven skills every manager should know:
1. Focus on Results
2. Force the Hard Decisions
3. Communicate Clearly
4. Remain Flexible
5. Prove Your Value to the Company
6. Force Collaboration
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