Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook: The 17 Skills Leaders Need to Stand Out is a “must read” for all executives as well as for those preparing for a career in business or have only recently embarked upon one.
Its HBR editors are to be commended for their brilliant organization and presentation of the expertise of dozens Harvard Business Review authors. That is, “best practices and foundational concepts from classic articles as well as emerging ideas and research.”
As they explain, “Whether you’re new to management or a seasoned veteran, the HBR Manager’s Handbook will help you learn the essential skills that all effective managers must master. This book is for you if you’re ambitious and want to become more efficient, more effective, more inspiring. You’re already a manager [or now preparing to become one] but perhaps you want to be a leader, too — someone who brings out the best in your employees and drives change within your company. The HBR Manager’s Handbook will show you how.
For example in Chapter 13, here are some thoughts about how to foster creativity.
“Creativity is the ability to generate novel ideas. Creativity isn’t just about developing innovative products and produce features for your customers: a creative team can identify bdtter ways to execute internal processes, find better ways to market a product, come up with better options in a negotiation, and solved problems more effectively. Enhancing team creativity is a goal-oriented, collaborative process that draws on each team member’s skills, experience, and expertise.”
These are the defining characteristics of a workplace culture within which creative thinking is most likely to thrive. Managers foster creativity by nourishing each of them every day.
o Members thrive on communication, cooperation, and especially, collaboration.
o No one worries about who gets the credit for a success.
o Members think and behave in terms of first-person PLURAL pronouns.
o The only “dumb question” is the one not asked.
o What is viewed as a “failure” almost anywhere else is cherished as a valuable learning opportunity.
o Anomalies are currency of the realm.
You can check out a wealth of ideas, insights, and counsel by visiting Pages 217-231.
Even those who do not earn a living within such a workplace can nonetheless derive great benefit from this book because the valuable information, insights, and counsel this book provides can help to accelerate their personal growth and professional development.
In Future Shock (1984), Alvin Toffler offered this prediction: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” HBR Manager’s Handbook is a single source that provides just about everything leaders and managers need to take full advantage of business opportunities in months and years to come.