A comprehensive book of “need-to-know” insights for busy leaders
Being a great leader means getting the fundamentals right. It also means consistently doing the “little things” that make a positive difference in the lives of employees, customers, and other stakeholders. The Busy Leader’s Handbook: How to Lead People and Places That Thrive is a practical, easy-to-use book filled with gentle reminders of what we should be doing every day - especially when work is at its most intense.
The Handbook is packed with proven best practices, tools, tips, and tactics for engaging employees, revitalizing cultures, delighting customers, and building high-performance companies. Short, succinct, and accessible, each chapter is “stand-alone,” offering helpful advice for meeting common business challenges. Plus, the strategies, approaches, and tactics are designed to be put into action immediately.
Best-selling author, businessman, visionary, and entrepreneur Quint Studer draws on his 30-plus years of experience in helping organizations of all sizes and leaders at every level reach peak performance. Comprehensive in scope, his book overflows with insights and practical advice to help you make smart leadership decisions. For example:
- Why putting the right foundational structures in place early on creates clarity and heads off problems that cause businesses to struggle and fail
- The importance of followership: why being a good leader requires that you first be a good follower
- Why we tend to run from self-disruption and a sense of being unsettled (and how to learn to embrace them instead)
- Why leaders should seek consent, not consensus
- How to engage employees and create a positive workplace culture
- How to help employees find meaning and purpose in their work
- How to conduct difficult conversations and resolve conflicts - and why having these skills (or not) can make or break you as a leader
- Advice for attracting and hiring the best talent, retaining them over time, and dealing with the low performers who drive them away
- Why mentoring is so powerful and how to encourage it inside your company
- Tips and tactics for seeing the world through your customer’s eyes
- How to reduce customer anxiety (and encourage them to buy) with the right words at the right times for the right reasons
The Busy Leader’s Handbook functions as a desk reference and pocket guide for anyone in a leadership position. It’s also a great training tool for onboarding new leaders. Whether you work for a start-up, a small or mid-size business, or a large corporation, this book will change how you think, inspire you to do your job better - and help your organization thrive.
Table of Contents
How to Approach This Book xvii
“Wait . . . Didn’t I Read This in Another Chapter?” xix
Section 1 The Leader in You: Key Skills and Behaviors 1
1 Strive to Be Self-Aware and Coachable 3
2 Invite Feedback from Others and Don’t Take it Personally; Instead, Take Ownership 7
3 To Be a Good Leader, First Learn to Be a Good Follower 13
4 Quiet the Ego and Lead with Humility 19
5 Let Values Be Your Guide 25
6 Be a Good Communicator 31
7 Know How to Get Things Done: Hit the Brakes on the Ideas; Hit the Gas on the Execution 37
8 Get Intentional About Time Management 41
9 Grace Under Fire: How to Manage Yourself During Stressful, Busy Times 49
10 Change the Way You Think About Change 55
11 Embracing Discomfort: Why Allowing Yourself to Be Unsettled Makes You a Better Leader 63
12 Clarity Counts: How and Why Leaders Should Give Clear Guidance on Rules 69
13 Face Conflict Head-on: Why Conflict Resolution is the Ultimate Business Skill 73
14 Reaching Resolution: How to Have Tough Conversations without Damaging Relationships 77
15 Drill Down on Generalizations 81
Section 2 Optimizing Employee Performance 85
16 Creating a Positive Workplace Culture 87
17 The Secret to Strong Relationships: Manage the Emotional Bank Account 93
18 Positive Recognition Changes Everything: The Art of Rewarding, Recognizing, and Saying Thank You 97
19 Meaning, Purpose, and Engagement: How Great Leaders Effectively Connect All Three 103
20 Help Employees Understand the Meaning of Their Work 111
21 Psychological Safety: Making it Comfortable for People to Tell the Truth and Take Risks 117
22 Know What the What is for Others (and Communicate Your Own What) 123
23 Don’t Resort to We/Theyism; Don’t Let Others Practice It, Either 127
24 Create a Culture of Ownership Inside Your Company 131
25 Mentors Matter: Here’s How to Be One and How to Work with One 137
26 Reducing Workplace Drama: How it Harms Your Company and How to Shut it Down 143
27 Make an Effort to Become a Millennial-Friendly Leader 147
28 Be a Positive Ambassador for Your Organization - and Teach Others to Do the Same 153
Section 3 Strategic/Foundational Topics 159
29 The Case for Structure: Why Companies Should Hardwire Processes, Practices, and Other Foundational Building Blocks 161
30 Define and Live Your Mission, Vision, and Values 165
31 Set Big, Bold, Clear Goals and Communicate Them to All Employees 171
32 Put “Official” (Written) Standards of Behavior in Place 175
33 The Power of Metrics: How Measuring the Important Things Helps Us Be the Best We Can Be 183
34 The Middle Manager Impact: Why a Strong Leader Development System is Crucial 189
35 Hiring the Right People: Creative Ways to Recruit and Hire 193
36 Retention: The First 90 Days and Beyond 199
37 Create a Training and Development System That Motivates Employees to Learn 207
38 Performance Reviews That Make a Difference 213
39 Customer Satisfaction Starts with Employee Engagement: Have a Process to Regularly Measure Both 219
40 Put a Well-Run Meeting System in Place: Why a Large-Group/Small-Group Approach Often Works Best 225
41 Focus on What Right Looks Like: How to Collect and Move Best Practices 233
A Final Thought: Putting it All into Practice 237
Acknowledgments 239
About the Author 243
Index 247
How Quint Studer Can Help Your Organization. . .and Your Community 263
