You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from subordinates, your supervisor, peers, and customers. You're not alone. As Linda Hill and Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It's trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey. At best, they just learn to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses. This new book explains how to avoid that fate, by mastering three imperatives: Manage yourself: Learn that management isn't about getting things done yourself. It's about accomplishing things through others. Manage a network: Understand how power and influence work in your organization and build a network of mutually beneficial relationships to navigate your company's complex political environment. Manage a team: Forge a high-performing "we" out of all the "I"s who report to you. Packed with comp

No More Headaches, Hypertension, or Heartburn If your work involves projects, then this book is for you. It willshow every company owner and project manager--at businesses largeand small--how to run projects differently. You'll benefit ifyou've ever: - been over budget on a project - exceeded a timeline on a project - worked on a project that completely stalled as you neared thefinish line - lost money on a sure-thing project and had no idea why - noticed that scope and feature creep held you back - watched a project take three times as long as planned - felt too embarrassed to perform a review of your successes andfailures - wondered whether your project actually made any money By the time you finish the book, you'll be ready to implementProject Management for Profit in your own company--and be preparedto keep your projects on track and on budget.

Robert E. Lee was a leader for the ages. The man heralded byWinston Churchill as "one of the noblest Americans who ever lived"inspired an out-manned, out-gunned army to achieve greatness on thebattlefield. He was a brilliant strategist and a man of unyieldingcourage who, in the face of insurmountable odds, nearly changedforever the course of history. "A masterpiece—the best work of its kind I have ever read.Crocker's Lee is a Lee for all leaders to study; and to work, quitedeliberatelya, to emulate." — Major General Josiah Bunting III,superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute In this remarkable book, you'll learn the keys to Lee's greatnessas a man and a leader. You'll find a general whose standards forpersonal excellence was second to none, whose leadership wasfounded on the highest moral principles, and whose character wasmade of steel. You'll see how he remade a rag-tag bunch of men intoone of the most impressive fighting forces history has ever known.You'll also discover oth

"As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater goodby bringing people and resources together to create value that nosingle individual can create alone..." So begins the MBA Oath, conceived in early 2009 byMax Anderson, Peter Escher, and a team of Harvard Business Schoolstudents. They saw that in the wake of the financial crisis, theMadoff scandal, and other headlines, MBAs were being vilified.People were angry because business leaders, many of whom were MBAs,seemed not to care about anything beyond their own privateinterests. Many began to question the worth of business schools andthe MBA degree. The oath quickly spread beyond Harvard, becoming a worldwidemovement for a new generation of leaders who care about society aswell as the bottom line. Thousands of graduating MBAs have nowpledged to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity, just asmedical students swear by the Hippocratic oath before they canpractice. This book is the manifesto for the movement. It provides not only astrong case for wh

Tradition says there are three ways to grow a company’sprofits: Fire up the sales team with empty promises, cut costs anddownsize, or cook the books. But what if there’s a better way—a waythat nine amazingly profitable and well-run companies are alreadyembracing? Jason Jennings and his research team screened more than100,000 Amer?ican companies to find nine that rarely end up onmagazine covers, yet have increased revenues and profits by tenpercent or more for ten consecutive years. Then they interviewedthe leaders, workers, and customers of these quiet super?stars tofind the secrets of their astoundingly consistent and profitablegrowth. What they have in common is a culture—a community—based on ashockingly simple precept: Think big, but act small. It works forretailers like PETCO, Cabela’s, and O’Reilly Automotive,manufacturers like Medline Industries, service compa?nies likeSonic Drive-In, private educational companies like Strayer,industrial giants like Koch Enterprises, a

The annual budgeting process is a trap. Pressured by fixedtargets and performance incentives, managers focus on making thenumbers instead of making a difference, meeting set goals insteadof maximizing potential. With their compensation at stake, managersoften resort to deceitful-even unethical-behavior. In the end,everybody loses-the employee, the company, and ultimately thecustomer.Now, finance experts Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser revealthe results of an intensive study aimed at fixing the brokenbudgeting process. They argue that companies must abandontraditional budgeting contracts in favor of a radical new modelthat links performance measurement to evolving competitivebenchmarks-and shifts the firm's focus from controlling employeebehavior to delivering customer value. The Beyond Budgeting modelis built on the best practices of companies that have successfullyrevised their centralized planning and budgeting processes. Itcombines a leadership vision that devolves more authority tooperating managers a