Leading the Unleadable
How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Every manager has to deal with difficult employees. However, what separates the great managers is their ability to turn them into productive team players.
Control freaks. Narcissists. Slackers. Cynics. Their outbursts, irrational demands, gripes, and countless other disruptions need to be dealt with, and you are the unlucky one with that job description.
This book turns this seemingly difficult chore into a straight-forward process that gently, yet effectively, improves behaviors. It all begins with understanding a core truth: most people actually want to contribute results, not cause headaches. When the manager resets to that fundamental principle, the potential for change can reveal itself in even the most hopeless situations.
Written by tech industry expert Alan Willett, Leading the Unleadable explains how to:
Master the necessary mindsetExplain the problem calmly in a short feedback sessionGet a commitment to change, then follow upCoach others to replicate the processDevelop the situational awareness required to spot future trouble before it hits
Are you a great manager? Of course you believe you are. So don’t just put up with your difficult employees. Anyone can do that.
Turn them into the tremendous team players everyone wants them to be!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
How can business managers deal with difficult employees and difficult teams? Largely by listening and coaching, explains Willett, president of the consulting firm Oxseeker, in this thin, familiar guide. According to him, leaders need to approach people problems proactively and without fear exactly what most of them don't do. Citing a track record that includes work with hundreds of leaders, Willett takes a highly communication-based approach, walking readers through various issues. These include the difficulties of leading, "accept the call of exceptional leadership," cultivating the right mindset, identifying trouble (and troublemakers), keeping employees performing, fixing problems before they arise, nurturing talent, and answering the toughest question of all: can these trouble employees be helped, or is it better to simply give up and let them go? The breakdown of different kinds of troubled teams incompetent, reactive, divided, etc. may be helpful to readers trying to diagnose a problem. However, the tips for how to sense trouble in the first place (e.g., "talk to people") and set performance expectations ("do things right from the beginning") are too obvious, and too clunkily presented, to be the salvation of the floundering business leader.
