Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.3124
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Portfolio Hardcover
Manufacturer: Portfolio Hardcover
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: December 28, 2006
Publishing house: Portfolio Hardcover
Sale Popularity Level: 276761
Studio: Portfolio Hardcover
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'If life were fair, employees would be perfect. They would do exactly what we asked them to do, exactly when we asked them to do it – except, of course, for the fantastic ideas they would cook up on their own…Back to reality. Your employees are, like you and me, flawed and hopeful human beings whose sucess is at least partly dependent on your skill as a manager, human beings who will thrive with skillful and consistent attention and wither without it.'
In business yesterday we’re told that management development is a thing of the past. Staying limber, preparing to change hats at a moment’s notice, and keeping your finger on the pulse of the 'new' – that’s what we’re told is critical.
At this moment when companies and managers aren’t focusing on the long haul, Erika Andersen says just the opposite. If you want to compete with the market leaders, grow your business, and succeed in your field, you need support: an all-star staff that epitomizes your company’s mission and has the skills to implement it.
How do you achieve this? Grow great employees.
For twenty-five years Erika Andersen has been helping some of the best-managed companies in the world develop their employees. In Growing Great Employees you’ll learn how they stay ahead of the competition by investing in their people. You’ll discover that:
• Listening is your most powerful asset. Use it to motivate and build commitment.
• Everything you know about interviewing is wrong. Find out how to discover what you really need in a potential employee and how to find it.
• Successful companies hire for keeps. Get people feeling like part of the team from day one.
• Great leaders surround themselves with the best. Recognize who has potential and develop them into tomorrow’s leaders.
Whether you’re a manager or a senior executive, Growing Great Employees is your guide to creating a dynamic workplace where the efforts you make with your employees yesterday will blossom into sucess for years to come.
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Rated by buyers 
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This very useful guide is full of strategies to help you get the most out of your staff. The gardening analogy does wear a bit thin by the end of the book, but its points are valid, and it lays out a solid road map for hiring and developing employees. Author Erika Andersen provides case studies and other hands-on tools that give you the chance to apply what you learn along the way. In addition to telling you how to grow great employees, she offers information on how to decide that someone isn't going to fit and how to let them go properly. getAbstract recommends this excellent guide, which carefully explains how to become a master at hiring and keeping good employees, a very important facet of growing your business.
Rated by buyers -
In the introduction, Erika Andersen lays out her underlying premise as follows: "Managing well requires skills--just like cooking or playing the piano or, yes gardening--and I hope to teach you some of those skills." She succeeds. Here's an outline of the book, chapter by chapter.
Preparing the soil. This chapter concentrates on what Andersen calls "the foundation of management success:" listening.
Plan before you plant. This is about how to set expectations. There's very good material here on core competencies and key capabilities. One very important skill that Andersen covers is learning to describe a job clearly. This is vital if you want to find the right people to do the job and if you want to establish clear expectations for them.
Picking your plants. This chapter will be hard for many managers in larger companies to implement. It covers using the interview process to make sure you're hiring the people most likely to succeed on the job. The material is good, and picks up on those listening skills mentioned in the very first chapter. The sad reality, though, is that HR has co-opted the hiring process in many companies and the managers have very little say
Not too deep and not to shallow is about how to bring people on board. You will search in vain through dozens of books about managing people without finding a word, let alone a chapter, on this critical task.
The gardener's mind is a great chapter about trusting your own skill and letting human nature help you grow great people. This is the core concept beneath the metaphor. Read this chapter when you doubt yourself. Read this chapter when you are tempted to "make" something happen.
A mixed bouquet. Guess what? Everyone who works for you will be different. This is the chapter that will help you figure out how to manage each of them.
Staking and weeding. This is the day-to-day stuff you have to do to keep the garden growing. It's not very exciting most of the time, but it's absolutely essential and the great supervisors I've known have practiced it as a core part of the job. There's good material on giving feedback of all kinds.
Letting it spread. The gardening metaphor starts to break down a little here, but it's OK. This chapter is about delegation, how to do it well, and how it can make things better for everyone.
Plants into gardeners. The metaphor morphs into science fiction. Imagine the plants in the garden rising up and seeking nutrients on their own, watering each other and thriving. Andersen shares her coaching model in this chapter.
How does your garden grow? The metaphor is back and working. Andersen re-states the core idea that successful gardeners trust their own skills and the power of (human) nature. She offers her "management decision tree" to help you work effectively with your team members. If you like complex decision trees, you'll love it. If you don't, skip it. There's enough good narrative and example here that the decision tree is not really necessary.
Some plants don't make it. I wish this chapter had come earlier in the book, but I'm glad it's here. Too many authors imply that if you do as they suggest everything will work wonderfully and profit and joy will reign. Every working manager knows that's impossible. Sometimes you have to help a team member move on to another job where they can thrive. There are tools here to help you.
The master gardener. When you become responsible for people and their performance you enter a field where you will never know everything. I tell new supervisors that it will take them a year and a half at least to become effective and at least ten years of work to master the art of supervision. Even then you won't know or be good at everything. In this final chapter, Andersen comes to terms with that by giving you tools to guide your own development.
If you are responsible for managing people and their performance this book will help you do your job more effectively. It is an absolute must-read for working managers and for senior executives who want to improve people management in their organizations.
Rated by buyers -
Tending the garden is metaphor and departure point for this brilliantly clear, wise and pragmatic book. If you aspire to be an effective leader, if you strive to achieve the potentiality of those who work with you or for you - whether you are a human resources professional, a CEO or newly minted supervisor - Erika Andersen's insights, tools and exercises will deepen your skills, give you fresh insights, and reinvigorate you.
GROWING GREAT EMPLOYEES reminds me that one's humanity plays a big role in becoming an influential leader. The importance of being a good listener, a mentor, being bold, honest, responsible and accessible to those around you are welcomed reminders in this era of myopic functionality, quarterly returns, and corporate liability.
Beyond trend, GGE will be a `perennially' relevant resource for the business community.
Rated by buyers -
Growing Great Employees is an exceptional resource guide to building and managing a powerful team. We send this book to all of our clients, candidates and new hires as it is full of inspiration, powerful tools, practical examples and insight. Erika's conversational writing style, realistic examples, and multi-faceted approach empowers each reader to enhance their leadership skills and manage with confidence.
Rated by buyers -
Erika Andersen provides us with all the skills we need as managers to turn our associates from contributors to superstars!
In addition to being full of insights and inspirations, Growing Great Employees has space for you to write YOUR story, and to make this book your own.
Don't buy 1 copy of this book...BUY 2: 1 for you, and 1 to give away to your favorite manager or manager-to-be!
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