Succeeding with Senior Management


Book Description

This all-inclusive communication guide explains how the project manager can bridge the gap and engage the upper ranks. Senior managers speak the language of strategy. Project managers use the language of tasks and activities. These significantly different communication styles can lead to breakdowns and setbacks at project sites that are difficult to overcome, especially for the project manager. The key to working through this is communication--specifically communicating up. By establishing relationships early on, understanding executives, and keeping them involved, project managers can win the support they need--which will be especially critical when problems arise. Succeeding with Senior Management that covers a wide range of industries explains how project managers can: Navigate the company’s political waters Link the project to the business Provide options and recommendations for major decisions Use the right listening style Involve the sponsor in resolving cross-functional problems Learn how to keep senior management involved with your project, motivated to push obstacles aside, and focused on a successful conclusion. When troubles arise--and they will--you’ll be glad you kept them in the loop.




Advising Upwards


Book Description

Much has been written about leadership and team building, but there are still major gaps in thinking and research about how to engage senior stakeholders in support of an organisation's projects. The central role of stakeholders in the successful delivery of organisational strategy is becoming increasingly recognised, as is the importance of developing a sponsor culture to support more collaborative practices within the organisation. Building, and managing, relationships with senior (upwards) stakeholders is essential for success. Advising Upwards brings together the ideas of experts in fields related to engaging senior stakeholders, such as risk management, decision-making, understanding cultural considerations, effective communication and other disciplines that may enhance the sustainable engagement of senior stakeholders. The starting point is an examination of the difficulties that senior managers face as they move through the ranks of an organisation from middle management to executive levels. Senior managers usually move up through the organisation on the basis of command and control management. Once in the executive ranks they must develop a more collaborative approach and adopt the principles of emotional intelligence (EQ) to succeed. Awareness of difficulties that senior stakeholders may face drives effective approaches for communication between the team and sponsors. Case studies and stories from experts illustrate practical, structured approaches that enable the teams to develop robust relationships with senior stakeholders will result in teams 'being heard', and support their 'being extraordinary' through innovative approaches to advising upwards.




Surviving and Succeeding in Senior School Management


Book Description

Explores all the vital aspects of the senior school manager’s job from day to day, ideal as a career guide to aspiring managers as well as a practical manual for current managers on how to optimise their effectiveness.




The Next Level, 3rd Edition


Book Description

REVISED AND UPDATED 3RD EDITION! Drawing on the secrets of a top executive coach, The Next Level is an indispensable guide to executive success, full of simple, practical, and immediately applicable insights and tools for leaders who need to get bigger and better results. For more than a decade,The Next Level has been an indispensable guide to executive success. It reads like a series of conversations with a trusted coach who has brought together a cadre of successful senior leaders to deliver a master class on executive level best practices. This practical, actionable guide to success at the executive level helps readers understand what they need to pick up and let go of to achieve the results that are expected at the next level. Along with simple and immediately applicable tools and frameworks he's road-tested with thousands of coaching clients, Eblin offers clear, practical advice reinforced by interviews and case studies from executives who know what it takes to succeed. With fresh insights throughout, this 3rd edition will help readers sustain their success over the long run with new information on how to develop a personal action plan for leading at their best by living at their best. NEW TO THIS EDITION: 1. Updated Introduction and Afterword 2. New insights on leadership effectiveness gleaned by the author since the 2nd edition 3. A completely revised chapter 3 with new guidance on creating a Life GPS personal action plan 4. New and updated Coachable Moment tools (including the TRACK Model of Effective Delegation) 5. A revised appendix with the latest approach to creating a self-directed Executive Success Plan (ESP)




Radical Candor


Book Description

Radical Candor is the sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on the one side and ruinously empathetic on the other. It is about providing guidance, which involves a mix of praise as well as criticism, delivered to produce better results and help employees develop their skills and boundaries of success. Great bosses have a strong relationship with their employees, and Kim Scott Malone has identified three simple principles for building better relationships with your employees: make it personal, get stuff done, and understand why it matters. Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Drawing on years of first-hand experience, and distilled clearly to give actionable lessons to the reader, Radical Candor shows how to be successful while retaining your integrity and humanity. Radical Candor is the perfect handbook for those who are looking to find meaning in their job and create an environment where people both love their work, their colleagues and are motivated to strive to ever greater success.




Executive Presence


Book Description

Are you “leadership material?” More importantly, do others perceive you to be? Sylvia Ann Hewlett, a noted expert on workplace power and influence, shows you how to identify and embody the Executive Presence (EP) that you need to succeed. You can have the experience and qualifications of a leader, but without executive presence, you won't advance. EP is an amalgam of qualities that true leaders exude, a presence that telegraphs you're in charge or deserve to be. Articulating those qualities isn't easy, however. Based on a nationwide survey of college graduates working across a range of sectors and occupations, Sylvia Hewlett and the Center for Talent Innovation discovered that EP is a dynamic, cohesive mix of appearance, communication, and gravitas. While these elements are not equal, to have true EP, you must know how to use all of them to your advantage. Filled with eye-opening insights, analysis, and practical advice for both men and women, mixed with illustrative examples from executives learning to use the EP, Executive Presence will help you make the leap from working like an executive to feeling like an executive.




Senior Leadership Teams


Book Description

An organization’s fate hinges on its CEO—right? Not according to the authors of Senior Leadership Teams. They argue that in today's world of neck-snapping change, demands on leaders in top roles are rapidly outdistancing the capabilities of any one person - no matter how talented. Result? Chief executives are turning to their enterprise's senior leaders for help. Yet many CEOs stumble when creating a leadership team. One major challenge is that senior executives often focus more on their individual roles than on the top team's shared work. Without the CEO's careful attention to setting the team up correctly, these high-powered managers often have difficulty pulling together to move their organization forward. Sometimes they don't even agree about what constitutes the right path forward. The authors explain how to determine whether your organization needs a senior leadership team. Then, drawing on their study of 100+ top teams from around the world, they explain how to create a clear and compelling purpose for your team, get the right people on it, provide structure and support, and sharpen team members' competencies - and your own. Timely and practical, this book enables you to create and sustain a leadership team whose members learn from one another while collaborating to pursue your company's objectives.




Overworked and Overwhelmed


Book Description

Leverage mindful awareness and intention to achieve better outcomes Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative offers practical insights for the executive, manager or professional who feels like their RPM is maxed out in the red zone. By making the concepts and practices of mindfulness simple, practical and applicable, this book offers actionable hope for today's overworked and overwhelmed professional. New research shows that the smartphone equipped professional is connected to work 72 hours a week. Forty eight percent of Americans report that their stress level is up and that the number one source of stress is the job pressure of a 24/7 world. What's the alternative? Top leadership coach and educator Scott Eblin offers one in Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative. While mindfulness is one of the "Top Ten Trends for 2014 and Beyond," many professionals think it's just too hard to give it a try. In this book, Eblin shows that mindfulness that makes a difference doesn't require meditating like a Buddhist monk. Overworked and Overwhelmed is a handbook for more mindful work and living that offers: "Must know" mindfulness basics that today's professional needs to thrive in a 24/7 world. Inspiring examples of mindfulness in action from dozens of leaders ranging from a U.S. Coast Guard Commandant to the CEO of Hilton Worldwide. A self assessment for readers to understand how they perform at their best. Simple routines to reduce stress and sustain peak performance. A personal planning framework for creating the outcomes that matter most at home, at work and in the community. Even small increases in mindfulness can lead to big changes in productivity and quality of life for the overworked and overwhelmed professional. Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative is a guide for doing just that.




The Art of Action


Book Description

What do you want me to do? This question is the enduring management issue, a perennial problem that Stephen Bungay shows has an old solution that is counter-intuitive and yet common sense. The Art of Action is a thought-provoking and fresh look at how managers can turn planning into execution, and execution into results. Drawing on his experience as a consultant, senior manager and a highly respected military historian, Stephen Bungay takes a close look at the nineteenth-century Prussian Army, which built its agility on the initiative of its highly empowered junior officers, to show business leaders how they can build more effective, productive organizations. Based on a theoretical framework which has been tested in practice over 150 years, Bungay shows how the approach known as 'mission command' has been applied in businesses as diverse as pharmaceuticals and F1 racing today. The Art of Action is scholarly but engaging, rigorous but pragmatic, and shows how common sense can sometimes be surprising.




What You Don't Know and Your Boss Won't Tell You


Book Description

To move ahead in your career you need to be concerned about many issues that are not taught in school or the company handbook. What You Don't Know and Your Boss Won't Tell You covers a wide range of topics explored candidly by experienced female executives who learned how to navigate the unspoken and often debilitating rules of corporate life. This book will show you how to actively manage your career, communicate in the language of business, find leadership opportunities and good mentors, and develop a personal style that projects confidence and competence. The book also shows how you can handle the nuances of dating, emotions, and office politics, how to understand the rigors and rules of business travel, and ways to balance work and family comfortably. Unlike other books geared toward women on how to succeed in corporate life, What You Don't Know and Your Boss Won't Tell You offers specific advice from a group of successful female executives that will help empower women to take char