Some Helpful Reading for Managers

Please find attached a few books and articles that I found helpful on my journey. Remember that reading is also about chemistry, so look for a few authors from whom you love to learn and then stick with them for a while. At the end of these lists of texts, please find a brief document entitled: "How to Learn from Reading: Learn Twice as Much in Half the Time." Hope you find something useful here. Also, please feel free to browse our programs in these areas. (Joel Shapiro)

Abbreviations:

HBR = Harvard Business Review
HBSP = Harvard Business School Press
PDI = Davis et al., Successful Manager's Handbook (Personnel Decisions International)

Great Books on Leadership:

• The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leadership at Every Level, Tichy & Cohen (Harper Business 1997)
  
• Results-Based Leadership, Ulrich, Zenger, & Smallwood (HBSP 1999)
  
• Managing Transitions, Bridges (Addison Wesley 1991)
  
• Leadership A to Z, O'Toole (Jossey-Bass 1999)
  
• Leadership without Easy Answers, Heifetz (Belknap Press, Harvard 1994)
  
• Leadership & the One Minute Manager, Blanchard (William Morrow 1985)
  
• Getting it Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge, Fisher & Sharp (Harper Business 1998)
  
• "What Leaders Really Do," Kotter, HBR (May-June 1990)
  
• "Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?", Zaleznik, HBR (May-June 1977)

On Becoming a Manager:

• Becoming a Manager: Mastery of a New Identity, Linda A. Hill (HBSP 1992)
  
• The Rookie Manager: A Guide to Surviving Your First Year in Management, Straub (Amacom 2000)
  
• Leadership for New Managers, Hill, Gabarro, Kotter (HBSP, HBS Number: 9180)
  
• "Make Smarter Mistakes," Kruger, Fast Company (October:November 1997): 153-169
  
• "Congratulations, You're Promoted. (Now What?)" Matson, Fast Company (June:July 1997): 118-130

Women & Leadership:

• Swim with the Dolphins: How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on Their Own Terms, Glaser & Smalley (Warner 1995)
  
• Best Practices of Successful Women Managers (4 audiocassettes-based on Swim with the Dolphins), by Career Track
  
• Doing Leadership Differently: Gender, Power & Sexuality in a Changing Business Culture, Amanda Sinclair (Melbourne University Press 1998)
  
• The Female Advantage: Women's Ways of Leadership (Doubleday Currency 1990)
  
• Women of Influence, Women of Vision: A Cross Generational Study of Leaders and Social Change, Astin & Leland (Jossey-Bass 1991)
  
• "Will She Fit In?" Joan Magretta, HBR (March-April 1997)

Power & Authority:

• "Power Dynamics in Organisations," L.A. Hill, Leadership for New Managers (HBSP #9180)
  
• "Leading in New Ways," J.E. Apps, Leadership for the Emerging Age (Jossey-Bass 1994), chapter 8
  
• Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management, Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel (Free Press 1998), chapter 8
  
• Power and the Corporate Mind: How to Use rather than Misuse Leadership, Zaleznik, & Kets de Vries (Bonus Books 1985)
  
• Managing with Power: Politics & Influence in Organisations, J. Pfeffer (HBSP 1992)
  
• Power & Influence: Beyond Formal Authority, J.P. Kotter (Free Press 1985)

• If you're interested, you can learn a lot about power by reading about power struggles in political history, political philosophy, military strategy, and so on.

Persuasion and Influence:

• "Exercising Influence," L.A. Hill, Leadership for New Managers (HBSP, #9180)
  
• "Influence Others," Successful Manager's Handbook (PDI 1992)
  
• "The Arts of Influence," D. Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam 1998), pp. 163-97 & 251-53
  
• "Build Relationships" and "Leverage Networks" (PDI 1992)
  
• "The Necessary Art of Persuasion," Jay Conger, HBR (May-June 1998)
  
• "Six Principles of Persuasion," Nohria & Harrington (HBS 9-494-037, 24/8/93)
  
• Getting it Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge, Fisher & Sharp (Harper Business 1998)

Negotiation and Conflict Resolution:

• "Show Me the Money," Alan M. Webber, Fast Company (Nov. 1998)
  
• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Fisher & Ury (Penguin 1991)
  
• Getting Ready to Negotiate: The Getting to Yes Workbook, Fisher & Ertel (Penguin)
  
• Getting Together: Building Relationships as We Negotiate, Fisher & Brown (Penguin)
  
• Beyond Machiavelli: Tools for Coping with Conflict, Fisher, Kopelman, & Kupfer Schneider (Penguin 1996)

Interpersonal Skills, Building Relationships, & Organisational Savvy:

• "The Good Guy's Guide to Office Politics," Warshaw, Fast Company (April : May 1998)
  
• "Build Relationships" (PDI)
  
• "Display Organisational Savvy" (PDI)
  
• "Leverage Networks" (PDI)
  
• "Value Diversity" (PDI)
  
• "Manager Disagreements" (PDI)

Coaching:

• "Generative Coaching," Kendall Murphy, in Chawla & Renesch (ed.), Learning Organisations (Productivity Press 1995)
  
• "Coach & Develop Others," Successful Manager's Handbook (PDI)
  
• Coaching Knock Your Socks off Service, Zemke & Anderson (Amacom 1997)
  
• Leadership & the One Minute Manager, Blanchard & Zigarmi (Morrow 1985)
  
• Everyone's a Coach, Shula & Blanchard (Harper Business 1995)
  
• The Corporate Coach: How to Build a Team of Loyal Customers and Happy Employees, Miller (Harper Business 1993)
  
• 1001 Ways to Energize Employees, Bob Nelson (Workman 1997)

Employee Empowerment:

• Empowerment Takes More than a Minute, Blanchard et al. (Berrett-Koehler 1996)
  
• The Three Keys to Empowerment, Blanchard et al. (Berrett-Koehler 1999)
  
• "Organizing for Empowerment: An Interview with AES's Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke," Wetlaufer, HBR (January-February 1999)
  
• "Empowerment: The Emperor's New Clothes," Argyris, HBR (May-June 1998)
  
• "The Empowerment of Service Workers: What, Why, How & When," Bowen & Lawler, Sloan Management Review (Spring 1992), pp. 31-39
  
• "Empowering Service Employees," Bowen & Lawler, Sloan Management Review (Summer 1995), pp. 73-84

Teamwork:

• The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams, Blanchard, Carew, & Parisi-Carew (William Morrow, 1990)
  
• The Three Keys to Empowerment, Blanchard, Carlos, & Randolph (Berrett-Koehler 1999), especially chapters 5, 8, & 11.
  
• "Foster Teamwork," Successful Manager's Handbook (Personnel Decisions International, 1996)
  
• "Team Doctors, Report to ER!", Fischetti, Fast Company (February:March 1998), pp. 171-77
  
• "Managing Your Team," Hill, Business Fundamentals as Taught at the Harvard Business School: Leadership for New Managers (HBS Publishing, 1998, #9180).
  
• Teams at the Top: Unleashing the Potential of Both Teams and Individual Leaders, Katzenbach (HBSP 1998)
  
• "The Discipline of Teams," Katzenbach & Smith, HBR (March-April 1993)
  
• The Wisdom of Teams, Katzenbach & Smith (HBSP 1993)
  
• 1001 Ways to Energize Employees, Nelson (Workman, 1997), Part II, "Energizing Teams"
  
• Why Teams Don't Work: What Went Wrong and How to Make it Right, Robbins & Finley (Peterson's/Pacesetter Books, 1995)
  
• "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups," Druskat and Wolff, HBR (March 2001)

Communication:

• Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, Stone, Patton, & Heen (Viking 1999)
  
• "Foster Open Communication," Successful Manager's Handbook, (PDI); in the same book, see also the chapters "Speak Effectively," "Listen to Others," Deliver Presentations," and "Prepare Written Communications"
  
• "Massive Multidirectional Communications" in The 8 Practices of Exceptional Companies, Jac Fitz-enz (Amacom 1997), pp. 89-113
  
• Why Didn't You Say That in the First Place?, Heyman (Jossey-Bass 1994)
  
• Guide to Managerial Communication: Effective Business Writing and Speaking, Munter (Prentice Hall 1982, 1997)
  
• Conversationally Speaking: Tested New Ways to Increase Your Personal & Social Effectiveness, Garner (McGraw-Hill 1980)

How to Learn from Reading:
Learn Twice as Much in Half the Time

Knowledge isn't power; competence is power. (James C. Georges)

Everyone learns differently, and learning from reading is not the ideal method of learning for all people. However, reading is one of the most cost-effective ways of learning. It also allows you to choose your own materials & learn at your own pace. Most big companies and their consultants love to brag about what they do ("it's good PR"). Therefore, if you know how to read, for the mere price of a book you can learn from the best practices of the world's leading companies and benchmark your own performance against the best in the world. So whether or not reading is your preferred style of learning, make sure you are continually developing your reading skills.

There are two approaches to learning from reading. The first is to read something over and over and over until it becomes part of the way you think and part of the way you see the world. At that point you will naturally & automatically begin using the new ideas because you now see the world in those terms. The second approach-described in the six steps below-is more strategic & efficient insofar as it allows you to customize your learning plan to your own learning needs (you can of course use both approaches simultaneously):

Step 1: Read the book or article once to get a firm understanding of the central idea(s) and the way the author thinks-also to make sure the book is worthy of further investment of your time and effort.

Step 2: Read the book again to look for (and make note of) the most interesting or useful ideas. (When you get really good, you can combine steps 1 & 2 by marking the most interesting passages as you read.)

Step 3: Make a list of the most interesting or useful ideas, and prioritize them. Which ideas or skills will be most useful to your most important work objectives or career development goals? If you want, start with a few quick wins to generate some immediate results and build some momentum, and then tackle some more ambitious improvement projects.

Step 4: Take one or two of the most important ideas and map out a multi-step plan to test & implement the idea or learn the new skill. Make sure to use the new skills or test the ideas on your current projects whenever possible. Use the new ideas and new skills to help you tackle your critical business objectives and improve performance in your key result areas. Use the SMART goal format: your goal (or each step of your plan) should be Specific, Measurable (or observable), Achievable (challenging but realistic), Relevant (important), and Time-based (can set a deadline to it).

Step 5: Review your progress regularly (set deadlines or review dates), and readjust your goal or plan based on your progress, the situation, the reaction of others around you, etc.

Step 6: When you have been successful with your first project (i.e., when your first new idea has been successfully implemented, or your first new skill has become part of the way you do things), repeat Steps 4 & 5 with the next idea or two on your list of priorities. One good book can give you twenty ideas. As LeBoeuf says: "Choose only one new technique at a time and practice it for three weeks."

The six-step process above can be applied to many learning media: books, articles, videos, cassettes, workshops… Summary: do one thing at a time; work on it until you've got it right; then move on to the next idea. Or in other words, set a goal; make a plan; review results; adjust plan… The "after action review" is a great tool to help you adjust & refine on the fly. As always, you get out of it what you put into it!