A. Keith Barnes

In any organization, there are key players—individuals who set the tone and the culture. Effective Management offers tips for them to become the instruments of change. The keys in this book will help managers support teams of people who rise to the occasion, solve problems proactively, and take advantage of positive opportunities.

Culture is at the root of organizational health. But culture comes from leaders. So winning culture only arises when an organization has effective management. There are many long books about how to become a better leader, but Effective Management gets right to the point: To engage with your employees, you need to practice the 20 keys. With practical stories of a fictional leadership team supplementing each chapter, A. Keith Barnes illustrates the concepts presented in the book. It is easy to see what goes right and wrong, rather than only finding out about leadership theory.

Some of the 20 keys to a winning culture include meeting dos and don’ts, who gets the credit, dealing with underperformers, and how to feature the benefits. Instead of reading 20 books on each issue, you should read this book to get to the real core of each issue, and see why changing your approach makes such a big difference in organizations.