Back while I was still working, I came across a great website, ChangeThis. I have found this site to be the source of some great reading, including:
1) The Bootstrapper’s Bible, by Seth Godin
2) The Art of the Start (Chapter 1 only) by Guy Kawasaki
3) 100 Ways to Help You Succeed by Tom Peters
Anyway, I checked in on that site (I still have not integrated RSS feeds into my life), and found a good article today on Accountability Managers. The idea is that as a manager, YOU have to look at yourself, determine what you need to be good at, then find ways to get accurate feedback of how you are doing – from across the organization.You then need to act on that feedback and work on improving.
These actions not only make you more effective as a manager, but you will also be leading by example, hopefully motivating your employees to be more accountable as well. Interesting reading for anyone in a management position.
PS – The Art of the Start is excellent. I highly recommend buying the book.
PPS – I find Tom Peters fun and inspirational to read. He’s got a lot of stuff on ChangeThis. Check it out here.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Mia Haskins // Dec 1, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I read this article – and thanks for the link to the website, it is very good.
I sent this article to all of the group leaders and managers in my business unit. I think that our company is trying to move toward something ‘like’ this, but are having trouble implimenting this on such a large scale. Maybe my managers will read this and send it to their managers – or maybe even try and impliment some of this themselves. Or, maybe I will get fired. Either way, it can only be good news.
2 Dan // Dec 1, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Glad you liked the article. Hopefully they will be able to implement some of the changes they are trying to make!!
3 Mia Haskins // Dec 7, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Well, I haven’t been fired yet. It has been almost a week since I sent out the article. I have had no responses and only one comment. One of the group leaders asked if I had received any comments from any of the other recipeints of the email. That was it. So far it has been a silent revolution.
4 Dan // Dec 7, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Hey Mia,
I know you are trying to get fired, so that’s too bad it hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully someone will read that stuff!! Though it doesn’t sound like the response has been overwhelming. Hope all is well…
Dan