My goal for 2012: Make my book “The Supermanager” a best seller by the end of the year

by Greg Blencoe on February 7, 2012

(This post was inspired by Jesse Lyn Stoner’s recent post “7 Things I Learned About Goal-Setting in 1999.”  This is my way of writing down my goal and sharing it with others.)

It’s difficult to put into words what it’s like to be a writer.  Words really can’t explain what the journey is like.  It’s something that must be experienced to be truly understood.

My journey as a writer began back in late 1997.  That was when I started the first version of my management book.  The last 14 years have been quite an adventure.

Between late 1997 and late 2004, I wrote and self-published four versions of the book.  While the fourth version was getting closer to what the book needed to be, another major improvement was still needed.

Therefore, I put the book aside when another opportunity presented itself.  Between 2005 and 2010, I was CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries which was an alternative energy start-up company.  I spent a lot of my time blogging about hydrogen cars and being an advocate for the technology (see the following New York Times article).

However, while we gave our best effort, hydrogen cars won’t be sold until about 2015, so there was very little interest from investors.  My guess is that hydrogen cars between 2005 and 2010 are likely similar to the internet between 1985 and 1990.  We were just 5 to 10 years too early.  Therefore, the company closed in 2010.

Since late 2010, I have been working on the fifth version of my management book.  I knew back in late 2004 that I needed to change my book into a story.  I felt I needed to keep most of the ideas from the fourth version, but the presentation of those ideas needed to be in a more interesting format.

The title of the book is “The Supermanager: A Short Story About the Secrets of an Extremely Successful Manager.”  It is now available on Amazon.com (both print and e-book versions) and Barnesandnoble.com (e-book version only).

Here are the Supermanager’s seven principles that are discussed in the book:

1) Surround yourself with high-quality employees;
2) Train employees well;
3) Communicate the end result you want, then empower employees to achieve it;
4) Lead by example;
5) Listen to employees;
6) Praise good work; and
7) Manage each employee differently.
 
The paperback version of the book is just over 100 pages and the estimated reading time is 1–1 ½ hours (approximately 14,000 words).
 
The feedback on the book from those that have read it has been absolutely fantastic.  I know I’ve got the material exactly where it needs to be.
 
However, the issue now is marketing.  I need a lot more people to read the book.  And this is why I started the blog a little over a month ago.  My hope is to connect with a lot more people who have an interest in management books.
 
After being inspired by Jesse Lyn Stoner’s recent post on goals, I want to share my goal for 2012 which is to make “The Supermanager” a best seller by the end of the year.
 
I know how good the book is and how people respond to it.  And now I’m going to spread the word about it to lots of other people, so I can accomplish my goal and make my dream come true.
 
(Update: Thanks so much to the following bloggers for writing reviews of “The Supermanager” on their blogs!)
 
Anonymous, Manage Better Now blog, February 25, 2012
 
 
Chuck Carringer, Chuck Carringer blog, February 29, 2012
 
 
Caitlin Durkin, The BOLD SPIRIT blog, March 10, 2012
 
 
Tina Del Buono, Practical Practice Management blog, March 29, 2012
 
 
[Image credit: lululemon athletica]
 

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What is leadership?

by Greg Blencoe on February 4, 2012

Citing the book An Integrative Theory of Leadership by Martin M. Chemers, the Wikipedia entry on leadership states that:

“Leadership has been described as the ‘process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.’”

I think this is a fantastic definition of leadership.  But what do effective leaders do that makes them influential?

When I think of a leader, I think of a person who possesses the 19 traits in the following list (in no particular order):

  • Knows their business so well that they can be confident in making decisions
  • Stands up for what is right even when it is not popular
  • Is both very confident and humble
  • Surrounds themselves with great people
  • Listens to those people
  • Praises good work
  • Leads by example
  • Can admit when they are wrong
  • Learns from their mistakes
  • Sees the potential in others
  • Gives the people around them the freedom to do their jobs
  • Manages each person differently based on their individual personality, skills, desires, etc.
  • Respects other people
  • Knows what they don’t know (and then is resourceful enough to get the answer from somebody who does know)
  • Keeps both their head in the clouds and their feet on the ground
  • Provides a vision for where they want to go
  • Thinks big
  • Follows up thinking big with acting big
  • Can step back and follow when needed

[Image credit: psd]

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Four very sad words

by Greg Blencoe on February 2, 2012

Two high-quality employees are having a private conversation.  They talk about how they are overworked and underappreciated.  The possibility of working at another company is then discussed.

While this thought provides a brief moment of relief and a little excitement, one of the employees then says:

“It’s like this everywhere.”

The other employee silently nods in agreement.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Fortunately, while it may seem that it’s like this everywhere, there are individual managers and companies that are doing an outstanding job managing employees.

The work is to create a world where they are the rule rather than the exception.

[Image credit: Emmaline]

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Posts from other bloggers that I’d like to share

by Greg Blencoe on January 31, 2012

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading a lot of posts from other bloggers who write about management, leadership, etc.  I’ve come across a lot of really good material.

Here are seven posts that I’d like to share:

“A Constructive Look At Criticism” by Anonymous at the Manage Better Now blog

“Are Americans Overworked?” by David Burkus at the LeaderLab blog

“A Case For Being a ‘Nice’ Boss” by Gwyn Teatro at the You’re Not the Boss of Me blog

“Leaders Are Master Learners” by Bret L. Simmons at the Positive Organizational Behavior blog

“Build An Organization You Would Want To Do Business With!” by Chuck Hebert at the Management 4-1-1 blog

“Help – It’s not a dirty Word!” by Mike Myatt at the N2growth blog

“Before You Decide Vision Is Passe: 8 Reasons Why Vision Matters” by Jesse Lyn Stoner at the Jesse Lyn Stoner blog

[Image credit: C!... (Carlos Maya)]

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The reward for good work is often more work

by Greg Blencoe on January 28, 2012

High-performing employees are a blessing for managers.  They simply get things done and they get those things done well.  This gives their managers a lot of comfort and peace of mind knowing that the tasks delegated to these employees will be handled properly.  The managers are then free to focus on other issues.

The trust and faith that managers have in high-performing employees often leads the managers to delegate more and more responsibility to them.  Therefore, over months and years, the scope of a job of a high-performing employee can greatly expand beyond what was agreed upon when the employee accepted the position in the company.

High-performing employees typically have a difficult time letting their managers know that they have too much to do.  Due to the high standards that they have for themselves, they will often just do the extra work to the best of their ability and not say much about it to their manager.  And since the employee isn’t complaining, the manager might give the employee even more work to do.

In these situations, the exact mindset of the manager is often pretty difficult to gauge.  In most cases, I don’t think the managers who are dumping more work on these high-performing employees are completely aware of what they are doing to them.

Instead, I think it is more likely a combination of the manager being “conveniently ignorant” and genuinely not knowing that the employee might be overwhelmed with too much work.  This is especially true if the manager doesn’t have regular meetings where they listen to employees and get feedback on how things are going in their jobs.

When this situation occurs, the morale of the high-performing employee can decrease significantly.  Frustration, bitterness, and resentment can build more and more over time.  And this can possibly lead to the employee getting really tired of the whole situation and leaving for another job.

So what should managers do about all of this?  Here are three things:

  • Have regularly scheduled meetings with employees where you ask them how things are going in their job, listen to their feedback, and consider making adjustments based on that feedback
  • Praise the good work done by employees (morale is likely to plummet if high-performing employees are doing a lot more work and doing it well and not being praised for their efforts)
  • If possible, give the high-performing employee a raise so they are fairly compensated for doing more work in their job

High-performing employees take care of their managers.  The managers should remember to take care of the high-performing employees, too.

While not all companies can afford to give these employees an increase in pay, their managers should at least let them know that what they are doing is really appreciated.

[Image credit: dareortruth]

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