Here are 100 books that Developing Management Skills fans have personally recommended if you like
Developing Management Skills.
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As a college professor, I taught MBA students about management and when I became an executive with a team of 50, I learned more about how to apply and understand theory in the workplace. I’ve always focused on the practical. Theory is great but needs to be practically applied in order to learn how to become more effective. I believe that we're all in control of our own destiny and that becoming a better manager is within our power. Developing the competencies we need can be done through training and on our own through focused, practical, and structured work. Self-directed learning can be applied to every aspect of work, whether you’re a manager or not.
Lisbeth has been a colleague for many years and, like me, has the academic credentials and ability to understand the research about how best to manage and how best to talk about it in a practical and engaging way. As a trainer, I’ve been able to use this book in my work with organizations large and small. It focuses on practicing to help you build your competencies. I’m a firm believer that leaders can be made and this book helps readers develop their skills and understand what they need to do in order to focus on their own development.
What?—in this book, we look at managerial capabilities, how to evaluate them, and build the ones needed to create value for the customer, the employees and the organization. Through user stories, vignettes, examples, guided reading questions, interactive exercises, and assessments we explain how to reflect on your own capabilities and determine areas for self- improvement and growth. So What?—most organizations neglect the role of managers, undervalue it and, therefore, suffer from a lack of strong management capability. Employees want managers who will provide goals as well as direction, feedback and coaching—and who recognize and reward them for good performance. Yet…
As a college professor, I taught MBA students about management and when I became an executive with a team of 50, I learned more about how to apply and understand theory in the workplace. I’ve always focused on the practical. Theory is great but needs to be practically applied in order to learn how to become more effective. I believe that we're all in control of our own destiny and that becoming a better manager is within our power. Developing the competencies we need can be done through training and on our own through focused, practical, and structured work. Self-directed learning can be applied to every aspect of work, whether you’re a manager or not.
Julie Zhuo has a Silicon Valley and technology background and writes about management in a very straightforward way that lets the reader both identify with the content and learn from it. The new manager is targeted in this book but the discussion and anecdotes are valuable for anyone. My experience is that managers, even those who have held the people manager role for many years, need to refresh their view and skills on a continuous basis. Organizations frequently don’t train managers as often or as deeply as is needed. Starting with a good foundation that talks about “people, purpose and process” as Zhuo discusses, is not only a good foundation, but a good refresher as well.
Congratulations, you're a manager! After you pop the champagne, accept the shiny new title, and step into this thrilling next chapter of your career, the truth descends like a fog: you don't really know what you're doing.
That's exactly how Julie Zhuo felt when she became a rookie manager at the age of 25. She stared at a long list of logistics--from hiring to firing, from meeting to messaging, from planning to pitching--and faced a thousand questions and uncertainties. How was she supposed to spin teamwork into value? How could she be a good steward of her reports' careers? What…
As a college professor, I taught MBA students about management and when I became an executive with a team of 50, I learned more about how to apply and understand theory in the workplace. I’ve always focused on the practical. Theory is great but needs to be practically applied in order to learn how to become more effective. I believe that we're all in control of our own destiny and that becoming a better manager is within our power. Developing the competencies we need can be done through training and on our own through focused, practical, and structured work. Self-directed learning can be applied to every aspect of work, whether you’re a manager or not.
Weasley Donahue presents a practical guidebook for managers and individuals looking for a resource for professional development. A primary goal is to help the reader become a competent manager by providing tools and content in a structured way that allows the learner to work through issues that are important to them in becoming a more proficient and effective manager. This is a candid and dynamic book with easy-to-follow content. The workbook approach supports my notion of self-directed learning with a focus on competencies and helps the reader derive the most personally important competency areas in an organizational setting.
Winner - 2022 Global Book Awards: SILVER MEDAL / Business Leadership
The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born -- that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born. —Warren G. Bennis
Do you aspire to move forward in your career? Do you own your own business? Do you want to be a leader in your organization? Are you responsible for helping others to develop their leadership competencies and reach their potential?…
As a college professor, I taught MBA students about management and when I became an executive with a team of 50, I learned more about how to apply and understand theory in the workplace. I’ve always focused on the practical. Theory is great but needs to be practically applied in order to learn how to become more effective. I believe that we're all in control of our own destiny and that becoming a better manager is within our power. Developing the competencies we need can be done through training and on our own through focused, practical, and structured work. Self-directed learning can be applied to every aspect of work, whether you’re a manager or not.
Similar to self-directed learning, this book is highly learner-centered. The focus is on teaching skills that matter most to those who manage. Although practical in nature, the book also provides a good discussion of the theories driving successful management behavior – making this a good evidence-based book. The book uses a problem-based approach and starts each chapter with a discussion about “manage what” to create meaningful context.
"Management Skills" by Baldwin/Bommer/Rubin distinguishes itself by exclusively focusing on teaching relevant skills, its learner-centered writing and its evidence-based foundation. This text's problem-based approach draws students in with several fundamental and specific questions or challenges in the Manage What? feature opening every chapter. The learner-centered writing style and the focus on the actual skills that matter to career success as well as the chapter ending tool kits make this text a keeper.
Everyone survives by selling something whether we wear the title or not. Selling has been my career, even before I was a salesperson. I started my career in engineering but quickly realised my passion was in developing business, not designing industrial ventilation systems. Helped by a boss who also saw I was better suited to roles other than engineering (he wasn’t so polite) I went on to enjoy a successful career spanning 4 decades working in Australian, Asian, and European markets that embraced all facets of sales and business development. Helped by great mentors and learning from the experience of others, I have endeavoured to give back by mentoring business owners, salespeople, and writing.
The internet delivers us a tsunami of information. Approximately 328.77 million terabytes of data are created each day – 60 times more than in 2010 and estimated to grow at 20% per year.
How can we make sense of this? What is valuable and what is not? What is real, what is fake?
Mardsbjerg argues that our fixation with data makes us lose touch with reality and that we need to be making sense of the world through deep, nuanced engagement with culture, language, and history.
A FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE MONTH (APRIL 2017) Humans have become subservient to algorithms. Every day brings a new Moneyball fix - a maths whiz who will crack open an industry with clean fact-based analysis rather than human intuition and experience. As a result, we have stopped thinking. Machines do it for us. Christian Madsbjerg argues that our fixation with data often masks stunning deficiencies, and the risks for humankind are enormous. Blind devotion to number crunching imperils our businesses, our educations, our governments, and our life savings. Too many companies have lost touch with the humanity of…
I am an information architect, writer, and community organizer on a mission to make information architecture education accessible to everybody. I started practicing IA in pure pursuit of stronger visual design, but in the two decades since have developed an insatiable appetite for understanding and teaching the practical skills that make people better sensemakers, regardless of their role or medium. The books I chose for this list are all foundational to me becoming the sensemaker that I am today. I offer them as suggestions because they are not the books you will find should you search for “Information Architecture” yet they have all become my go-to recommendations for helping others to strengthen their own sensemaking.
You might not think of excitement when you hear the words “Digital Governance” but I can assure you that this book is a real page-turner…especially if your job involves managing large-scale information messes. There is a special kind of chaos that only information and knowledge workers can understand and this book paints a picture so many of us have seen in practice but in a way that leaves the reader inspired to fight another day, instead of wallowing in a sea of information-induced self-pity.
I recommend this book because I have seen too many information architecture efforts die on the vine due to a lack of good governance. The frameworks and recommendations in this book mean I always have a playbook to hand to teams in need.
Few organizations realize a return on their digital investment. They’re distracted by political infighting and technology-first solutions. To reach the next level, organizations must realign their assets—people, content, and technology—by practicing the discipline of digital governance. Managing Chaos inspires new and necessary conversations about digital governance and its transformative power to support creativity, real collaboration, digital quality, and online growth.
Jeff has been a UX designer, team leader and product manager for over 20 years. His work in the field helped define some of the key practices product managers use today. Building a customer-centric practice is key to successful products and services and Jeff has demonstrated that not only in the products and companies he’s helped build but in the writing and thinking he’s contributed to the product managaement community.
Product discovery is the way in which great product teams learn whether or not they’re building something of value. Teresa has distilled and sharpened this practice into a set of tools and techniques that she delivers in her signature direct style. Must read for all product managers and UX designers.
"If you haven't had the good fortune to be coached by a strong leader or product coach, this book can help fill that gap and set you on the path to success."
- Marty Cagan
How do you know that you are making a product or service that your customers want? How do you ensure that you are improving it over time? How do you guarantee that your team is creating value for your customers in a way that creates value for your business?
In this book, you'll learn a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery that will help…
It has been an incredible journey, starting with $200 in assets 45 years ago and finally starting to achieve what I had dreamed of in life and business after struggling for two decades. I learned through the value of reading and building quality relationships, with God's help, I would be successful in life and business. Based in Cave Creek, Arizona, I've spent my career building Desert Star Construction, known by clients and industry colleagues as "the best team in the luxury home business." It is an online community that helps overwhelmed Christian marketplace leaders rediscover their eternal purpose and find unending joy in their life and leadership.
I like Jesus, CEO for many reasons. I read it when it first came out in the mid-1990s. It is a staple in my library because the principles it brings forth are timeless. It focuses on the strength of self-mastery, action, and relationships. These were crucial elements that Jesus used with the disciples. I was challenged to see life's opportunities and do something new to celebrate them. We all want the next big thing, yet it is ok to start small and do your best. It was the realization that we all want to be successful in business but are we taking time for people in need? Jesus always had a plan and gave clear instructions. Lastly, when profit is the only measurement, the results lead to exploitation. Jesus changed the measure from self to others, and He came to give and not to get.
Bestselling author Laurie Beth Jones brings you the ultimate guide to transforming your team and sparking inspiration in your business. In Jesus, CEO, Jones compares Jesus to a CEO who turned a disorganized "staff" of twelve into a thriving, long-lasting enterprise. Now more than ever, employees expect their leaders to be motivating, understanding, and ready to follow up their words with actions. With the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Jesus, CEO, Jones revises and updates her original modernized guidance, ensuring that everyone can continue to apply the ancient wisdom pulled straight from the Bible.
Filled with fresh, practical, and profound advice,…
I’ve been doing large-scale software development at great US businesses from the introduction of the PC to the cloud explosion. From my earliest successes (online banking at US Bank in 1985!) to my biggest failures (Wells Fargo “Core” disaster in 2006), I’ve always sought better ways of doing things. These five books all were important to my learning and remain highly relevant, and I hope you find them useful as well.
I spent my career leading software engineering at two of America’s top banks. It’s not all innovative work, as you might guess, and here is where Toyota comes in.
Toyota teaches the difference between routine, standardized work (where we use predictive process control) and creative work (where we use adaptive process control). Balancing this in practice is a key to being a great software engineering leader. For those manufacturing-like processes (incremental feature addition, defect repair) the Toyota manufacturing way became the basis of the Agile movement a decade later: flow, pull, level work, quality the first time, process standardization and continuous improvement, and closeness to customers. Toyota Way provides a deeper understanding than any agile seminar.
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industry
In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.
Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by:
I love businesses and have been lucky enough to work for and with some great ones in my career in senior leadership positions. For me, leadership is an extraordinary privilege, so we have a responsibility to do it well and keep learning and improving ourselves and the organisations we lead. My journey into more conscious leadership began over 30 years ago, well ahead of the current movement, and it has progressively become the passion driving my work to help leaders and organisations contribute to building a better world. This passion also drives my service with a number of spiritual communities, including Sundial House and the Community of Living Ethics.
For me, the idea of leading by serving others, of helping them grow to be their best, expresses one of the core principles of leadership–releasing the potential in others. Service was the background track of my early corporate career in an organisation striving to do this globally.
The principles of servant leadership–empowering others and ethical and sustainable leadership–sit well with my spiritual values. This book has played a significant part in my journey to leading and living more consciously.
What also stood out for me was Greenleaf’s introduction of the concept of stewardship–we are, after all, just stewards of our organisation, and our world, tending and nurturing them for the next generation. This stewardship mentality is increasingly important given the climate and other crises of today.
Based on the seminal work of Robert K. Greenleaf, a former AT&T executive who coined the term almost thirty years ago, servant-leadership emphasizes an emerging approach to leadership—one which puts serving others, including employees, customers, and community, first.
The Power of Servant Leadership is a collection of eight of Greenleaf's most compelling essays on servant-leadership. These essays, published together in one volume for the first time, contain many of Greenleaf's best insights into the nature and practice of servant-leadership and show his continual refinement of the servant-as-leader concept. In addition, several of the essays focus on the related issues of…
