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There comes the oh so foretold and prophesized times when an employee ascends from his meagre post at the register and lands in the office, the manager office. Our hero thinks that he finally made it and he’ll be able to guide his old peers to new heights of productivity. Only to find out he’s way in over his head.
The transition to manager is rough, you are no longer a peer but a superior and you should act like it to be respected like it. Now, this is a tricky balance, a power dynamic you better learn to navigate soon before the employees start exploiting your kindness. You can learn all about that by reading these books on being a good manager.
The Power of a System by John Fisher outlines excellent systems for law firm management and growth. Hiring, motivating staff, and case management are only a few of the management systems presented. This book is a favourite among personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys in the US.
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This book a simple, quick and easy read that gives practical and instantly actionable advice for al managers no matter what size company or where in the organisation you are. Unlike many management books that are often theoretical and abstract, Blanchard’s book gives you clear next steps to implement that day.
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It is a classic lesson in the mathematics of management that both managers and their employees can read and embrace together. This timeless book (and audio book) NEVER gets old, and never fails to solve the actual tensions, decisions, and day-to-day improvements required of any for-profit, product producing, service providing business.
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The world’s largest generation, Millennials will make up 75% of the workforce by 2030, and it’s important to know how to manage them. This USA Today and Los Angeles Times bestselling book will teach you how!
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In Critical Conversations as Leadership William A. Donohue describes conversation as a card game called Card Talk. The key to successful business communication and interpersonal communication is to select the right Talk Cards to accomplish communication goals. Readers will learn to select the right cards, so that they can think strategically about getting points across. Card Talk teaches communicators to think ahead of critical conversations and to not ‘think behind’ or reactively.
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Balanced Leadership in Unbalanced Times is Dr. Robert Pasick’s useful new toolbox of leadership strategies for men and women who want to improve their performance at work and in the community. Dr. Pasick is a popular writer, psychologist and leadership coach with many public appearances on radio and TV.
You may have seen him on Oprah. His clients range from veteran Fortune 500 executives to men and women starting their first businesses or stepping into their first professional careers. He understands how hard life is these days for millions of Americans suddenly shifting careers and employers. Dr. Pasick’s life-saving advice is that people don’t have to merely juggle the competing demands of work, family, community, health and values. We can learn to balance these vital spheres of life and, working with Dr. Pasick’s dozens of strategic ideas in this new book, we can become more effective leaders as a result.
The core of the book is a series of Coach’s Clipboard strategies, inviting readers to start with the most important challenges in your daily life. The book becomes your personal toolbox with space to outline your immediate and long-term goals. In Balanced Leadership in Unbalanced Times, you’ll meet a wise coach who will reduce your stress, raise your spirits and quickly get down to the key choices you can make today.
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While written for the education industry, this book is beneficial to any manager that is trying to find actionable steps to improve their business. This book provides an in-depth look at what great leaders and managers do to separate themselves from the rest while creating the tools they need to come up with strategies for any difficult situation.
Discussion, actionable steps, and real-life success stories show how leaders can help their employees with their practices and build a better business overall. Not only does this book give you tips and advice, but it also provides real-life situations on how leaders got through impossible times and improved their business.
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Being a good manager isn’t always easy so it’s important to get some tips from others who have been there. This book covers everything from walking your talk and personal branding to how to plan, looking after yourself, fitting in, cultivating diplomacy and more. He also has others in the series such as “The Rules of Work”, “The Rules of Wealth” etc., that are great for a well rounded perspective on these other facets of work (and life!).
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This book reveals the secrets of what makes successful groups. Author Daniel Coyle breaks down the science behind these groups and provides a toolkit to implement this into your business and life.
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Of the 55 million daily meetings in the US, most of the results of these meetings are average. This book will give advice on how to make the most of meetings and ultimately help achieve better results.
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The author delves into the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. These historic figures accomplished so many great things under a lot of pressure. This book will help teach how to apply great leadership skills during times of distress by using examples.
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This book is very helpful to address how to treat people in the workplace. Employee retention is very important, so treating your people the right way can lead to increased employee retention.
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Radical Candor is the best book I’ve read on how to be a good manager, from a practical sense. Kim Scott’s philosophy about how to be completely honest, yet caring, is to me, the most humane way to approach management, and interpersonal relationships at work. My learning how to be radically candid, you learn how to approach your fellow workers with compassion, yet still get the job done.
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The New Manager’s Workbook: A Crash course in Effective Management is a workbook and guidebook to help new managers navigate the intricacies and pitfalls of being at a position of power over employees. Most everyone has experienced a manager who falls at one extreme or another, from the angry micro-manager to the absentee sure, whatever manager.
With decades of managerial experience under his belt, Randy Clark guides you toward that happy middle where good managers live and work. He shows how to deal with the good (hiring, praising, and motivating employees), the bad (navigating silos and dealing with low-quality work), and the ugly (controlling confrontation employees and, if need be, firing them) while keeping your soul intact.
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This book had a major impact on my leadership development and managing people. The book goes into how there are 5 levels of leadership and that most people unfortunately only lead from level 1. This level is more just trying to lead from a standpoint of authority solely based on your position in the organisation.
Almost from a place of leading by force and through policies and procedures. The outcome of reading this book will help you shift from being an average leader to a great one. It can help transform your leadership and management style by force, into people following you because they respect you and actually want to follow you.
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This comprehensive book (roughly 336 pages cover-to-cover) is written by an internationally recognised leadership expert, speaker, coach, and author who has sold several million books on management, leadership and personal development. Dr. Maxwell’s companies have also trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide. This easily understood book is a practical guide to help leaders (especially new leaders) understand their roles, how leadership development occurs, the important traits that leaders share, and the impact that they can have within their organisations.
This revised edition of Maxwell’s million-selling original text introduces two new Laws of Leadership, an assortment of updated leadership anecdotes, and a brand-new evaluation tool that readers can use to assess their own leadership abilities. Dr. Maxwell also provides a wide variety of real-life examples that demonstrate how leaders have achieved success while following these principles.
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Awarded Best Management Book by 800 CEO-READ and Rated the #5 Best Business Book by The Globe and Mail (Canada) breaks down the task of management into the four kinds of conversations needed to move any project from initiation to completion. Armed with a solid body of research plus their own first-hand observations, Jeffrey Ford, Emeritus Professor of management with the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and his management consultant wife, Laurie Ford, provide a clear outline for management success whether in the corporate world or at home. Easy to read and immediately applicable, this book is the best guide to good management available.
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