Brilliant Manager, 3rd Edition

Introduction

Welcome to the third edition of Brilliant Manager. A quarter of

the second edition was new material, and again for this third

edition a quarter of the book is new. The second edition con-

tained a replacement chapter called Brilliant business tips; a new

chapter called Management master-class; and a substantial rewrite

of the chapter on Organising your team. For this third edition all

the material on leadership is new. Chapter 2, called Leadership,

has been totally rewritten. I now believe that too much is made

of leadership styles and that most brilliant leaders use the same

core techniques. The leadership chapter now describes these

techniques, which if applied will make you a great leader. One

of the attributes of a brilliant leader is to have a credible vision,

strategy and plans for the future of the team and its offerings.

The new Chapter 3, Visions, strategies and plans, describes how to

create such visions, strategies and plans.

Although this new edition contains a lot of new material, the

basic principles of management I described in the first edition

remain unchanged. I believe there is a very clear distinction

between good and bad management. The fact that we all laugh

at Dilbert means that we all have the same idea about what

bad management is. Perhaps more surprisingly, anybody lucky

enough to work for a brilliant manager will probably find that

all the rest of the team have an equally good opinion of their

boss. Generally, it’s easy to see good and bad management in

other people. However, it’s far less easy to see it in yourself, and

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xii Introduction

harder still to know what it is that you need to change to become

a brilliant manager.

What is it that brilliant managers know, do and say that makes

them so good at their jobs? If you want to know . . . read on. The

good news is that most brilliant managers use a very similar set

of core techniques – this book will show you what they are, and

how to adopt them for yourself.

Brilliant Manager is for anyone who is a frontline manager,

dealing directly with staff, customers, senior management and

the like. This book distils the hard-won experience of the best

managers and sets it down as practical things you need to know,

do and say.

The sections covered are:

Managing people – Very few managers receive training in

managing difficult staff issues. Making the wrong decision

could cause someone real pain. This thought should scare you.

How do you make sure you handle every situation the right

way?

Leadership – You are not just a manager: your team is looking

to you for direction, inspiration, and to confront tough

problems – and you thought managing people was scary! What

techniques do brilliant leaders use?

Visions, strategies and plans – A great leader knows where the

team and its offerings are going. How do you create brilliant

visions, strategies and plans?

Culture – Some teams have great team spirit and obviously

share the same values and aspirations. How do you foster a

strong team culture?

Managing different types of people – Different professions

(lawyers, IT staff, sales people, consultants) all bring their own

problems, as do creative staff and support staff. How do you

best manage these different types of people?

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