Managing to Make a Difference - by Larry Sternberg & Kim Turnage (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Managing to Make a Difference presents a leadership guide for those in the middle. The C-suite has a wealth of resources for leadership guidance, but middle managers face a quandary: often given little guidance on how to excel, they are also under enormous pressure to do a variety of things other than "lead." This book provides much-needed tools and techniques for building a high-performing team--without letting your other duties suffer. Organized around a coherent philosophy and based on solid research, the discussion offers a roadmap to engagement, talent development, and excellence in management. From difficult situations and organizational challenges to everyday motivation and inspiration, these techniques help middle managers achieve the goals of their organization while empowering their workers to achieve their own.

Talent development is probably not your full-time job--yet it drives the engagement that results in high performance. This book shows you how to hit the "sweet spot" of middle management, with a host of tools and strategies to help you help your team shine.

• Motivate, inspire, and lead your team with confidence
• Manage through challenges and overcome obstacles
• Develop key talent and maintain high engagement
• Adopt practical management tools based on substantiated research

Most organizations direct the majority of their development resources to the C-suite, but still expect their mid-level managers to attract, engage, retain, and develop talent; but successfully juggling everyday duties while maintaining team performance and leading around roadblocks leaves little room for management planning. Managing to Make a Difference offers the solution in the form of tools, techniques, and practical strategy for a high performing team.

From the Back Cover

Becoming a manager is an exciting milestone step in a career--more responsibility, higher-company profile, and the position to influence consequential achievements. All too often, managers with the talent and ability to exceed their performance requirements fall short because they don't receive adequate training in leadership and team building. Managing to Make a Difference is the answer for middle managers across all industries looking for a turnkey system to boosting their practical skill set for bringing together, leading, and earning the respect of high-performing teams.

It's not easy juggling all the tasks you need to accomplish in your day with the responsibilities associated with mentoring, advising, and inspiring a group of people, and if you're barely treading water, designing a management strategy is a pipe dream. Don't worry--this practical guidebook immediately takes the guesswork out of becoming the type of magnetic leader who draws the best work out of teams. Whether you've just been promoted to manager or feel something is holding you back from elevating your team to reaching its full potential, this lesson-based workbook takes you through a tangible process for driving team performance with enough time and energy left to advance your own career.

From building individual relationships and maximizing your engagement to shaping the culture and leading through change--the logically progressive series of lessons are supported by coherent philosophy, substantiated research, and the firsthand practices of Larry Sternberg, who has extensive experience working with some of the most recognized brands in the world. Every chapter includes a real-world example illustrating the covered lesson along with to-the-point explanations, as well as hands-on experiments you can conduct to attain your own familiarity with the strategies before bringing them on the job. Take the competitive edge you need to outshine other managers with this guidebook's:

• Straightforward, actionable advice for precision tuning your soft skill set to empower and champion employees
• Tactics to negate such draining bad behaviors as gossip and blocking change without sacrificing the rapport with your team
• Guilt-free steps you can take to provide for your own needs and advance towards your goals

Managing to Make a Difference gives you all the latest practical tools and techniques for shaping the highly engaged, high-performing teams that make an impact.

About the Author

LARRY STERNBERG is a Talent Plus Fellow and on the Board of Directors. He has designed and conducted training programs on a variety of topics for thousands of executives and managers and has served as a facilitator for numerous organizations to articulate their mission, vision, and values. His areas of expertise include selection, training and development, employee engagement, empowerment, self-directed work teams, strength management, and leading change.

KIM TURNAGE has spent her career figuring out where people naturally excel and connecting them with opportunities to stretch those talents. A natural teacher and coach, she works as a senior leadership consultant with Talent Plus, helping global client partners with the selection, development, retention, and succession planning of top leadership talent.