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Rating: 
Summary: A no-nonsense guide to managing humanely.
Review: A truly great (and succinct) book that explains the *real* reasons employees don't do what they are supposed to do. Shows how managers ought to take responsibility for employee performance. Might be painful for x-managers.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide for new as well as seasoned supervisors.
Review: Have used this text in five different management workshops. Sales and product support supervisors like the practical guidelines to assist them remove obstacles standing in the way of better employee performance. Sales managers especially like the concepts because the suggestions offered are very realistic and cause the managers to re-think how they communicate with, supervise and direct employees on day-to-day basis.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat simplistic, but still decent.
Review: I work as a Customer Care supervisor at a Call Center. I purchased this book, along with quite a few other management books, in an effort to immediately and consistently improve my management and leadership skills. I didn't find this particular book to be very helpful in that endeavor. Many of the chapter subjects are common sense. The positive side of this book, for me, is that I have worked under, and dealt with, many very poor managers with counter-productive leadership habits. During such unpleasant circumstances, I've often wondered if the individual in question really didn't get how their behavior and habits were adversely affecting morale and productivity. I'm not currently in such a situation, but if I were, I'd carefully study these simple solutions to the common management problems, and try to gently make suggestions toward their implementation by the manager with whom I'm struggling. What seems like common sense to someone actively pursuing self-improvement, might not be so common to the hopelessly mediocre manager. It might not make so much sense to them either. So use small words and explain gradually! :)
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat simplistic, but still decent.
Review: I work as a Customer Care supervisor at a Call Center. I purchased this book, along with quite a few other management books, in an effort to immediately and consistently improve my management and leadership skills. I didn't find this particular book to be very helpful in that endeavor. Many of the chapter subjects are common sense. The positive side of this book, for me, is that I have worked under, and dealt with, many very poor managers with counter-productive leadership habits. During such unpleasant circumstances, I've often wondered if the individual in question really didn't get how their behavior and habits were adversely affecting morale and productivity. I'm not currently in such a situation, but if I were, I'd carefully study these simple solutions to the common management problems, and try to gently make suggestions toward their implementation by the manager with whom I'm struggling. What seems like common sense to someone actively pursuing self-improvement, might not be so common to the hopelessly mediocre manager. It might not make so much sense to them either. So use small words and explain gradually! :)
Rating: 
Summary: Good analysis of 16 reasons for unmet expectations
Review: Really helpful book! Fournies gives 16 reasons why employees (and maybe peers or others) fail to meet expectations. The book doesn't just give a list, though. It gives succinct insight into how to tell which is the reason in a particular case. Then, once we have the cause identified, it gives good advice on how to correct the root cause. I found it very helpful in handling failed expectations of others -- sort of Sun Tsu's *The Art of War* without the executions. <grin> I recommend this book as a tool for managers at all levels to turn frustration into solutions.
Rating: 
Summary: Kinda weak
Review: There's probably some stuff in here that would be useful for a manager who is completely clueless, but I didn't find much that would be useful insight for someone further along than that. I gave it a few chapters, because a friend I respect recommended it, but then gave up. I guess the book is okay for what it is, but it isn't likely to make any lasting improvement in your relationship with your employees. It generally comes from a perspective that has been somewhat popular in recent years, to the detriment of business, one that says:
- Process is more important than substance.
- Management can be detached from leadership.
- Management is more about skill than about character. Employees follow and build loyalty to leaders who lead, not administrators who manage. When you've proved yourself as a leader, when you've proved (by consistent actions over time) to your employees that you really have their best interests at heart, and when you've shown that you'll work with those who want to improve, but will deal decisively with those who poison the work environment, then amazingly enough, employees tend to start doing what they ARE supposed to do. I'd recommend skipping this one and picking up a copy of Leadership as a Lifestyle, by Hawkins, instead.
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