Managing for Excellence The Guide to Developing High Performance in Contemporary Organizations

by Bradford, David L.; Cohen, Allan R.

• ISBN13: 9780471127246
• ISBN10: 0471127248
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-03
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

"Managing for Excellence is above all usable. Its helpful, down-to-earth advice can transform any leader from merely good to positively outstanding. These are the ideas managers can not only admire but act on as well-the highest compliment for a manager's guidebook." -Rosabeth Moss Kanter Author of The Change Masters The bestseller that revolutionized management's vision of itself In the mid-1980s, the notion that the most successful managers are no longer heroic, but share power and responsibility, was so revolutionary that it bordered on heresy. But the ideas championed by David Bradford and Allan Cohen in Managing for Excellence proved so effective that, virtually overnight, thousands of skeptical upper-level managers became true believers. Managing for Excellence isn't just for CEOs, presidents, and veeps-the battle-tested methods laid out in this book help middle managers turn the strategic designs of upper management into reality. Bradford and Cohen reveal how great managers succeed by bringing out the best in their employees. They show managers how to: * Develop a cohesive team that jointly owns critical management issues * Deal with difficult problems head-on and make core decisions through consensus * Encourage healthy competition against objective standards of excellence * Be decisive leaders while encouraging input from team members * Manage daily procedures, adapt to change, and maintain a vision of the future simultaneously

Author Biography

DAVID L. BRADFORD is Senior Lecturer at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and an active management consultant. ALLAN R. COHEN is Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculty at Babson College. He is the editor of The Portable MBA in Management, also available from Wiley. Professors Bradford and Cohen are the authors of Influence Without Authority.

Table of Contents

1. The Need for a New Model of Leadership	1	(24)
2. The Manager as Technician or Conductor: Heroic Models of Leadership	25	(34)
3. The Post-Heroic Leader: The Manager-as-Developer	59	(40)
4. Overarching Goals	99	(34)
5. Getting the Most from Everyone: Developing and Utilizing Subordinates' Abilities	133	(36)
6. Building a Shared-Responsibility Team	169	(36)
7. You Can Get There from Here: Moving from Adequacy to Excellence	205	(40)
8. How to Get There from Here Even if You're Starting Upstream without a Paddle: Implementation under Tough Conditions	245	(34)
9. Final Words	279	(12)
Afterword: Ten Myths of Post-Heroic Leadership	291	(12)
Appendix: Leadership Style Questionnaire	303	(4)
Bibliography	307	(2)
Index	309