Practical Publications

By: Mary Helen Gillespie
From: The Boston Globe – December 1, 2002
THE SAVVY MANAGER Mary Helen Gillespie is president of Gillespie Interactive; a strategic management consultancy.

Practical publications that help add value or create solutions to the day-to-day challenges of management don't always get a lot of ink. These are the books that won't necessarily make the Top 10 lists of business bestsellers, and thus offer little threat to red- hot authors like Lou Gerstner of IBM and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

But what I like about these titles is they offer managers valuable references for some of the toughest parts of their jobs. So often we know what we have to do, but we just don't know where to start.

That's where this list comes in, whether for a business school student about to fly off into the real world or for seasoned management veterans juggling the critical realities of today's competitive marketplace. You'll be able to source these at local bookstores.

• "How to Write & Give a Speech" (by Joan Detz, Griffin Trade Paperback, 2d revised edition, 224 pages). Presentations are a strategic tool. Whether PowerPoint slides for five or 5,000, managers are constantly asked to communicate processes and goals to others. To be effective, these speeches must be clear, concise, and definitive.

Detz, an executive coach and communications specialist, does an excellent job outlining best practices for all types of public speaking. Each chapter offers step-by-step basics that cover how to research, write, and deliver a speech. There are also guidelines for moderating panel presentations, for panelists themselves and for delivering team presentations.

Detz also briskly goes about debunking many of the popular myths about speech giving including this jewel: "Some people think they absolutely must use a joke to begin a speech. I hope you are not one of those people."

• "Customers For Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer" (by Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown, Currency, revised edition, 208 pages). Managing customer relationships takes more energy and engagement than any other leadership function. Yet so often senior executives are reluctant to invest in service platforms that refine and enhance the customer experience. And then what happens? The customers go away. Sewell, a legendary car dealer, sells more than Cadillacs. He makes a very compelling case for excellent customer service based on more than just a smile but also on functional processes and systems that exceed customer expectations every time.

This is an easy-to-read primer that despite its cheerleading tone will become a permanent part of any manager's toolkit: "We can't afford to stop learning. There is a heck of lot more knowledge that becomes available each year, and if we don't continue our education, we can't remain competitive."

• Love 'em or Lose 'em: Getting Good People To Stay (by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc., 2d edition, 244 pages). This is a great book, and not just because it advocates, among multiple options, allowing well-behaved pets in the workplace as one way to show support for long-neglected employees. It also goes after the biases and assumptions that keep managers from recruiting and retaining the best people.

Kaye and Jordan-Evans put the responsibility of employee satisfaction squarely on the shoulders of management, from supervisors up to the CEO. Witness Chapter 10, titled "Jerk. Don't Be One." It includes a self-assessment test for managers to identify and mitigate their own internal jerk factors, which, by the way, most of us do exhibit at one time or another. "Jerk-like behaviors are so damaging that even one or two can negate all of your other strengths as a boss."

• "Practical Project Management: Tips, Tactics, and Tools" (by Harvey A. Levine, John Wiley and Sons, 378 pages). The biggest four- letter word in business today is risk. Nobody likes seeing that r- word on their radar screen. Best way to manage this is to have a plan, hence the value of improving and refining project management skills. As Levine notes, "risk controls requires proactive management rather than reactive management."