Managing Performing Living

TABLE OF CONTENT PREFACE TO THE NEW 2014 EDITION 10 Right Thinking-Right Management 14 The Key to Success 14 The Great Transformation 21 18 How Effective Management Systems Are Built 24 What Right Management Can Accomplish 26 PART I PROFESSIONALISM 29 1. The Ideal Manager-a Wrong Question 31 The Universal Genius-A Stumbling Block 31 The Effective Person 33 No Accordance in Personalities 34 What Counts Is What You Do, Not What You Are Like 35 Misleading Surveys 36 2. False Theories, Errors, and Misconceptions 39 The Pursuit-of-Happiness Approach 39 Leadership and the Great Man Theory 41 Errors and Misconceptions 44 3. Management as a Profession 49 Constitutional Thinking 49 Professionalism Can Be Learnt 51 The Most Important Profession in a Modern Society 53 The Most Important Mass Profession 56 Elements of Effective Management 59 Sound Training Is Possible for Everyone 62 PART II PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 65 Introduction 67 Simple but Not Easy 67 Useful in Difficult Situations 68 Not Inborn-Must Be Learnt 69 Ideals and Compromises 70 What Type as Role Model? 71 1. Focusing on Results 73 A Self-Evident Fact? 73 Misconceptions 75 What If People Cannot Accept This? 77 Pleasure or Result? 78 2. Contribution to the Whole 85 Position or Contribution? 86 Specialist or Generalist? 88 Wholistic Thinking 89 Contribution and Motivation 91 Contribution Instead of Title 92 The Consequence of Organization 93 3. Concentration on a Few Things 96 The Key to Results 96 Rejection Without Reason 98 Application Examples 101 4. Utilizing Strengths 107 Fixation on Weaknesses 108 Matching Tasks with Strengths 109 Should Weaknesses Be Ignored? 111 No Personality Reform 113 Why Focus on Weaknesses? 114 Learning from the Greats 115 How Can We Recognize Strengths? 117 Types of Weaknesses 119 Two Sources of Peak Performance 121 5. Trust 123 Creating a Robust Management Situation 124 How Can We Build Trust? 125 6. Positive Thinking 138 Opportunities Instead of Problems 138 From Motivation to Self-Motivation 139 Positive Thinking-Inborn or Acquired? 140 Freeing Oneself of Dependencies 144 Doing One's Best 146 7. Synopsis: Quality of Management 148 PART III TASKS OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 151 Preliminary Remarks 153 1. Providing Objectives 156 No Systems Bureaucracy 157 Personal Annual Objectives 157 The General Direction 158 Basic Rules for Management by Objectives 159 2. Organizing 171 Beware of "Organizitis" 171 There Is No Such Thing as a "Good Organization" 172 The Three Basic Issues of Organizing 174 Symptoms of Bad Organization 175 3. Making Decisions 180 Wrong Opinions and Illusions 180 The Decision-Making Process 188 4. Supervising 202 Supervision Is Indispensable 202 Trust as the Foundation 203 How Should We Supervise? 204 Measuring and Judging 211 5. Developing and Promoting People 215 People Instead of Employees 216 Individuals Instead of Abstractions 216 What Is Often Forgotten 224 6. Synopsis: What About all the Other Tasks? 229 PART IV TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 239 Instruments, Devices, Tools 241 1. Meetings 244 Reduce the Number of Meetings-Preferably to Zero 244 Crucial for Success: Preparation and Follow-Up 246 Chairing Meetings Is Hard Work 249 Types of Meetings 249 Meetings Are Not Social Events 252 Types of Items on the Agenda 253 No Item Without Action 255 Striving for Consensus 255 Are Meeting Minutes Necessary? 256 Meetings Without an Agenda 257 The Key: Implementation and Continuous Follow-Up 259 2. Reports 260 The Small Step to Effectiveness 261 Clear Language, Logic, and Precision 262 Bad Habits and Impositions 264 3. Job Design and Assignment Control 267 Six Mistakes in Job Design 268 Assignment Control 272 4. Personal Working Methods 282 The Joy of Functioning 283 Working Methods Are Personal and Individual 286 Working Methods Depend on Basic Conditions and Circumstances 287 Regular Review and Adjustment 289 Basic Applications of Working Methods 291 Managing the Unknown 300 Managing Line Managers and Colleagues 304 5. Budgets and Budgeting 307 One of the Best Tools for Effective Management 308 From Data to Information 309 Special Tips 312 Clean Documentation 318 6. Performance Evaluations 319 No Standard Criteria 320 No Standard Pro?les 321 The Better Method: A Blank Sheet 322 The Best Method: Real-Time Evaluation 324 Where Is Cautious Standardization Appropriate? 324 How Do the Best Do It? 325 What About Those Who Refuse to Be Assessed? 327 7. Systematic "Waste Disposal"-Renewing the System 329 Largely Unknown but Essential for Transformation 329 From the Concept to the Method 329 The Key to Strategic Effects 332 A Quick Guide to Personal Effectiveness 333 What if Something Cannot Be Eliminated? 334 One Last Tip 335 8. Synopsis: An Acid Test for Professionalism 336 PART V MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: A THINKING AND ACTING SYSTEM 339 1. Synopsis: An Acid Test for Professionalism 341 Right Practice Versus Best Practice 343 Systemics, Content, and Form of the Management Systems 343 The Operating System for Organizations - the End of Babylonian Confusion 344 2. Standard Model of Effectiveness: The Management Wheel 345 Operational Tasks Are Completely Different from Management Tasks 346 Management-Always the Same, But Not Always of the Same Difficulty 347 Why the Management Wheel Doesn't Need New Spokes 349 3. How to Generate Self-Regulation and Self-Organization 352 Applying the Standard Model to People Management 352 Applying the Standard Model to All Organizations of a Society 355 Outlook: Right and Good Management for a Functioning Society 358 Effectiveness and the Experience of Meaning 358 Responsibility and Ethics 359 EPILOG 362 Glossary 363 Endnotes 373 References 385 Index 390