Would They Call You Their BEST BOSS EVER?

Practical Tips and Insights for the Successful Manager

Lead Your People to the Results You Want

Who is the best boss you have ever worked for? What was it like working for this individual compared to, say, one of your less competent managers? You most likely did some of your best work, exceeded expectations, and felt that your work really mattered.

The 132 short articles inside this book contain practical tips, techniques, and approaches for being the best boss ever, the kind who generates consistently high performance and solid results.

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Praise for Ian’s book

Would They Call You Their Best Boss Ever“Ian has done the hard work for the busy manager. He has assembled pragmatic lessons about becoming a more effective leader that are easy both to absorb and to apply.”
– Richard Raines, President, Carfax, Inc.

“This book will provoke your thinking about how to draw the best from your people. The topics Ian covers are ones that I have found to be critical in my own growth as a leader.”
– Kevin Fiori, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Sunkist Growers Inc.

“The beauty of this book is that you can digest valuable leadership lessons in small chunks. Open any page and you will find a useful piece of information, a thought provoking point, or a practical approach that you can apply in your role as a manager. These also serve as great discussion starters when meeting with a management or supervisory team.

The tips and ideas that Ian has assembled here transcend borders and cultures; they speak to managers across the globe in developed as well as developing economies.”
—Hugh Riley, Secretary General & CEO, Caribbean Tourism Organization

“The talents one must develop to be a ‘best boss ever,’ so ably laid out by Ian Cook, are also what volunteer community leaders need to make a difference where they live. Over and over I have seen these very skills and approaches demonstrated by the most effective individuals who go through our programs and make a difference in the regions and communities they serve.”
— Susan Horne, President & CEO, LEAD VIRGINIA

“Are you the Best Boss? You can be. Pick up Ian Cook’s latest book and open it to any page. You will find a thoughtful insight or an easy to implement technique on every page. Ian has done the legwork for you. His suggestions are based on solid research and best practices. He helps you translate the most recent research into practical tips and techniques to improve your results as the ‘boss.’ He provides solutions and sound advice in areas such as how to engage and motivate your employees, effective ways to improve performance, and suggestions for leading teams for better results.

Throughout the book you will find references to management expertise requirements, interlaced with the guidance for how to make it work for you. And when you close the book you realize that Ian’s personalized style stays with you. You’ll think about the best practices. You’ll implement the technique. And you’ll be well on your way to being the Best Boss.”
—Elaine Biech, ebb associates inc, author, The Business of Consulting, editor, The ASTD Leadership Handbook

“More than searching for what’s new in leadership we need to better understand and apply what works. Ian’s done a masterful job of providing his practical coaching and leadership development experience in an easily digested format ready for application. This highly readable selection of timeless leadership principles brings us to the heart and skills of how to be the best boss they ever had!”
—Jim Clemmer, Practical Leadership author, speaker, and workshop/retreat leader, The Clemmer Group

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What’s Inside

 

Section 1

Building the Leadership Impact of Managers

  • Four Steps to Effective Performance Management Ouch! It Hurts To Think This Much! (Identifying Performance Targets)
  • Time to Check for Blinders, Manager
  • Leading and Managing: Are They Really So Different
  • The Manager’s Most Important 3 Feet
  • Great Management Tips for Uncertain Times
  • Why Managers (Too Often) Solve it Themselves
  • You Gotta Get’em to Wanna: 6 Roles the Modern Leader Plays
  • “It’s About the Caring, Stupid!”
  • Talent Magnets
  • Qualities of The Top CEO’s
  • We’ll Never Really “Solve” Organizational Life
  • True Leaders Leave a Huge Hole
  • R-E-S-P-E-C-T
  • Stepping into the Lion’s Den
  • Fear and Managers’ Fears
  • Add Inspiration and Watch Your Leadership Soar
  • Oh Yeah, Another Thing About Inspiring Leaders
  • To Flood or Not to Flood–a Test of Leadership
  • Six Lessons from Public Sector Change Leaders
  • A Nobel Prize for Leadership?
  • Leader, You May Be Distracted at the Moment
  • The Fear Factor
  • Something for Male Leaders to Keep in Mind
  • Assessing Organizational Leaders…Like We Do Political Ones
  • Judgement More than Expertise
  • Zappos CEO Models How it’s Done
  • The Best Leaders: a Paradox
  • The Leader as Authentic Actor
  • This Leader’s Lesson–Culture and Collaboration
  • Choose Stewardship Over Entitlement
  • Traditionals, Boomers, X, and Y Are People Too

Section 2

Having The Tough Performance-Related Conversations

  • Practice Difficult Employee Conversations
  • Cause, Not Blame, Produces Better Performance Feedback
  • Taking Your People to Where They Don’t (Think They) Want to Go
  • Suppress Your Default Response; Listen First
  • What’s Your Ask/Tell Ratio?
  • Skills & Knowledge…Leveraged through Attitude
  • Again…Do We Need Performance Appraisals?
  • Latest Findings around Performance Goals and Competencies
  • 4 Steps to Effective Performance Management
  • Shift–from Evaluation to Coaching

Section 3

Creating a Motivating Work Environment

  • A Lesson for Managers from the World of Sales
  • What Science Knows about Motivation
  • Behold the Motivational Moose
  • Look Beyond the Money for Their True Motivators
  • One Employee at a Time
  • Oh Yeah, That’s Why We Do This Work
  • (Re)Frame their Job as Something that Matters
  • A Neat Approach to Employee Recognition
  • In Their Play, You Are Only a Supporting Actor
  • Being a Leader is All about the Group
  • Getting Motivated by Meeting those You Serve
  • Have Your Employees Take a Fresh Look at their Jobs
  • The UN Has Them, Why Not You?
  • Does Job Satisfaction Lead to Better Results?

Section 4

Fostering a Culture of Accountability

  • Choice & Accountability: The Bedrock Of Superior Performance
  • Make it Safe to Take the Risk
  • The Truth that Hurts but Will Help Us Cope
  • What Meets Your Employee’s Expectations?
  • You Own Half of the Relationship
  • Resist the Temptation to Tell…Ask Instead
  • TW 2010 Global Workforce Study – Comment #1
  • TW 2010 Global Workforce Study – Comment #2
  • TW 2010 Global Workforce Study – Comment #3

Section 5

Developing Leadership Talent

  • Leadership Lessons from the Top 20 Corporations
  • At the Core of Developing Our Leaders
  • The Four Strategic HR Challenges for the Upcoming Decade
  • Executive Coaching: On The Rise
  • Leadership Coaching Has Really Arrived
  • Is the Coaching Client Ready?
  • How Should We Help People Learn Leadership?
  • Looking for Leadership in ALL the Right Places
  • Leaders Master Results AND Relationships
  • Not Only Purchasing Will be Effected
  • The Last 10%
  • It Pays to Attend to Your Organization’s Talent
  • A Gap in Your Senior Leadership Bench Strength
  • Attend to the Pipeline
  • A High Risk Strategy…Build Your Top Leaders
  • Up and Down…between the Balcony and the Dance Floor
  • Leadership Development…Even in Tough Times
  • Breaking News! People Aren’t Things
  • Don’t Clone Yourself
  • People Still Need the Basics

Section 6

Leading High Performing Teams

  • What to Do When Your Team Gets “Stuck”: 7 Ways to Get It Moving Again
  • Want Greater ROI From Your Meetings? Six Questions That Will Make The Difference
  • What if We Brought in a Facilitator?
  • Kickstarting a Brand New Team
  • Your Group Doesn’t Have to Be a “Team”
  • Allow Team Members to Find Their Place
  • Team Process Makes All the Difference
  • Trust the Process
  • Don’t Neglect Team Maintenance

Section 7

Communicating Effectively… In Every Direction

  • Trust, Communications, Leadership…and Retention
  • Communicating Your Core Brand Message – Internally!
  • What to Do about Those Infernal Grousers
  • Dealing with Resistance: the 4 + 2 Method
  • Are You a “Director” or an “Informer?”
  • We Listen but Do We Really Care?
  • Mirror, Mirror, in Our Brains
  • It’s Scary How Easily We Slip into Judging Mode

Section 8

Individual Development

  • Keep (Career) Development on the Table
  • Do We Stop Growing after Schooling?
  • Toxic Mix = Bully Boss
  • Raise Your Gaze: Staying Energized in the Daily Grind
  • What’s Your Current Edge for Development?
  • Cultural Neuroscience – The Brain in Action Again
  • Up Your Self-Awareness to the Next Level
  • No Choice: You Have to Take Your Own Path
  • Did You Ever Try to Climb a Lattice?
  • Coaching vs. Mentoring

Section 9

Employee Engagement

  • Employee Engagement-Just Part of the Puzzle
  • Two-Way Communication and Engaged Employees
  • Positive or Negative Feedback Trumps None at All
  • It’s Not Too Late to Attend to Your Talented Employees
  • Leadership Makes a Difference–at Every Level
  • Isn’t “Employee Engagement” Just Another Way to Get Them to Work?
  • Five Engaging Questions around Employee Engagement
  • Employee Engagement in Action–an Example
  • Time to Tune Your Radar in to Your Staff
  • Hey, Employers. Will Your People Be Staying with You?

Section 10

General Management

  • Hire to Complement Your Strengths
  • Who Am I, Boss or Friend?
  • People Just Want to be Noticed…and Appreciated
  • The Other Way, Beyond Technology, to Leverage Your Investment in Your People
  • It’s the Same Stuff, Even at Google
  • A Great Read for Implementing Change
  • Ensuring HR Has a Seat at the Table
  • The Checklist is Not the Goal
  • Delegation: The Forgotten Management Tool
  • The Paradox of Who Makes the Decisions