Becoming A Better Boss

An employee's-eye view of what makes a great boss—and how you can become one Whereas most books on managing people approach the subject from the perspective of a manager of an idealised organisation, Becoming a Better Boss takes a real-world approach, looking at the topic from the perspective of an employee in a real-world organisation—dysfunctions, warts, and all. Focusing on the choices individual employees make every day in getting work done, this book reinvents the practice of management one employee at a time. Author Julian Birkinshaw stresses the importance of taking management seriously, reveals where management practice often goes wrong, and dives deeply into the worldview of employees. He then explores the common personal biases and frailties of managers and discusses the vital importance of experimentation to overcome the limitations and idiosyncrasies of a particular organisation. Throughout, he supports his assertions with case studies from a wide and varying range of management experiments and situations at real companies. Written by a leading authority on strategy, management, and innovation who is also the author of eleven books, including Reinventing Management Introduces a new approach to management focused on real employees and actual situations Includes case studies from real organisations Between the stress of deadlines and the demands of today's business environment, it's easy for managers to lose sight of the importance of people management. Becoming a Better Boss not only shows managers how to lead effectively, but why doing so is vitally important to every organisation's success.

Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv 1 Why Management Matters 1 2 So What Is Good Management Really? 17 3 Getting Inside the Minds of Your Employees: What Makes Them Tick? 35 4 Seeing the World Through the Eyes of Your Employees 57 5 Doing What We Know We Should: Managing As an Unnatural Act 81 6 Experimentation: Functioning in a Broken System 107 7 The Future of Management? 129 Endnotes 143 Index 149