Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Jeffrey J. Fox has a talent for pointing out the obvious, but often forgotten, basics of business and management. Like Fox's previous books, How to Become a Great Boss contains almost nothing that is entirely original. Instead, it compiles what should be common-sense guidelines for effective leadership and presents them in a manner that is both educational and inspirational. Fox has the ability to get you thinking about what you are doing as a manager and about the things that you have allowed to fall by the wayside. For that simple but valuable lesson, we from getAbstract strongly recommend this book to all bosses, managers and leaders.
Rating: 
Summary: Best for Upper Management & CEOs
Review: Mr. Fox "wrote" this book by asking a few great bosses (mostly if not entirely men) for their impressions about the rules of the game. The book comprises their viewpoints, each person offering one gem for readers to ponder. When I ordered this book, I was looking for a possible text to use in my Management & Supervision classes -- something usable in a 10-week program and at a (more than) reasonable price. However, I believe this book is best suited to those who are already in upper management positions or who plan to be there soon. They are the only ones high enough up the food chain to be able to effect/implement the organizational changes the essayists envision. The unfortunate fact of business life is that if anyone can produce such changes, they can. But will they? It is also an unfortunate fact of business life that companies and their bosses are highly resistant to change. So it would be nice if we could create business environments like the ones the authors collectively support, but if in fact we were doing the right things, the mission would have been accomplished long ago. The authors do not say anything you have not read before: hire the best, fire the leeches, ask for employee input, do not let them let you as the boss get away with anything, and so on. Why, then, would most managers tell you that is a world they can only dream about? Answer: because despite the fact that these ideas have been expressed elsewhere for decades now, we have yet to achieve the work place dynamic we all would like to see. To achieve the goal, we need the following: (1) the emotional and intellectual maturity to make and abide by the right managerial judgments, and (2) another book that shows us -- precisely -- how to do number (1).
Rating: 
Summary: quick read
Review: Often in books like this, as you are reading the rules, you may think to yourself "well duh" but often we forget that the combination of the rules that Mr. Fox is recommending can really make a difference. Reading this book helped me to see what it was about my really great bosses that make them great. It also helped me to see where the shortcomings have been. As I continue to gain more responsibility, many of the rules in Mr. Fox's book will help me to keep focused. The section on the "D's" that need to be caught in employees helped me to determine a better solution for dealing with a recently problematic employee. I highly recommend taking the short time to read through this book!
Rating:
Summary: quick read
Review: Often in books like this, as you are reading the rules, you may think to yourself "well duh" but often we forget that the combination of the rules that Mr. Fox is recommending can really make a difference. Reading this book helped me to see what it was about my really great bosses that make them great. It also helped me to see where the shortcomings have been. As I continue to gain more responsibility, many of the rules in Mr. Fox's book will help me to keep focused. The section on the "D's" that need to be caught in employees helped me to determine a better solution for dealing with a recently problematic employee. I highly recommend taking the short time to read through this book!
Rating:
Summary: Lots of useful ideas for any work setting
Review: Recently, I read HOW TO BECOME A RAINMAKER: THE RULES
FOR GETTING AND KEEPING CUSTOMERS AND CLIENTS by
Jeffrey J. Fox . . . it was one of the best business books that I have come across in a long time. So when I came across an earlier book by Fox--HOW TO BECOME
A GREAT BOSS: THE RULES FOR GETTING AND KEEPING THE
BEST EMPLOYEES--I just had to get hold of it . . . and I did, getting the chance to listen to the taped version . . . I'm glad I did, too; it's another winner! Fox presents nothing brilliantly new, but he writes in a clear and readable fashion . . . in doing so, he presents lots of ideas that you can immediately apply to almost any management
situation . . . he also makes it clear that management involves
just about anything that we do, and a result, we should perhaps
think of many folks as "managers" that might not ordinarily
fit into that category (I'm thinking parents here, for example). In particular, I liked his following "Great Boss Simple Success
Formula":
1. Only hire top-notch, excellent people.
2. Put the right people in the right job. Weed out the wrong people.
3. Tell the people what needs to be done.
4. Tell the people why it is needed.
5. Leave the job up to the people you've chosen to do it.
6. Train the people.
7. Listen to the people.
8. Remove frustration and barriers that fetter the people.
9. Inspect progress.
10. Say "Thank you" publicly and privately.
Rating:
Summary: Simple and right on target
Review: Simple and right on target. This book gives great tips and suggestions for improving your supervisorial skills. Written in short, thoughtful, digestable chapters, this book is a must have for anyone who supervises others and want to be better at it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to par.
Review: The book is a quick read and gives some good pointers for those who are in management positions. A number of the tips are also valuable to non-management employees. The following chapters were nicely done: "The Customer Is the Real Boss" - A solid reminder of what our work is all about; "Don't Hire a Dog and Bark Yourself" - Don't do what your employees were hired to do; "Don't Check Expense Accounts" - The extra work and message this sends is not worth it. If an employee can't be trusted with an honest expense report, they should be fired; "Put the Policy Police on Probation" - Nice alliteration aside, this chapter reminds the bosses what every employee knows: there are too many meaningless policies that get in the way of work. Although there were a number of gems in the book, many of the chapters lacked the depths and quality needed for a higher rating. The small size of the book should have enabled the author to do a better job at packing in useful information.
Rating:
Summary: Readable Gem
Review: This book is different from most business books in two ways:
One, it is readable, two, it is a gem. The first chapter alone is worth the price. I am prompted to write this review
to correct an earlier review which claims Mr. Fox has a big ego because the word "I" is used so often. The word "I" is not used even once by Mr. Fox. It does appear in the epilogue which is a collection of terrific quotes from great bosses. Take one hour and read this superb and important little book.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: This is a worthless little book that did not help me in any way shape or form. The book was a waste of money and time.
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