Becoming an Extraordinary Manager: The 5 Essentials for Success

I was a software developer for 15 years before managing my first team. The last thing I want is to read about "synergy". It just brings back all the pain inflicted by so-so managers I've had in the past. I would really like to be someone my employees appreciate, respect and most importantly trust. Words I wish management spent more time trying to understand, and less time trying to "leverage." I received this book as a part of a one day class on managing remote teams (this book focuses on general management practices). It is direct and insightful and exactly what I needed as a novice manager to get my feet on solid ground. I was paticularly happy with Len's approach to performance management, and having now applied a strategy where performance is evaluated throughout the year, and where the final review is done in partnership and scored in agreement rather than me placing arbitray numeric values on things like "integrity" that simply aren't measured that way. I've been doing this for 2 years now and it works incredibly well - it is a long term approach that creates a vital trust between me and my employees. Len Sandler is clear, concise and direct. He is in every way what a good manager should be, and reading his book will help you - unless you are looking for fun new phrases to drop in your next managers luncheon.