A holistic, well-organized and groundbreaking guide for managers in the information age.
Certified speaking professional and leadership consultant Hauck presents a guide for managers wishing to improve employee performance.
In this engaging, accessible book, Hauck challenges the standard paradigm of employee evaluation by performance review by suggesting the system in which the employee works, rather than the employee, must change. Many organizations currently employ management tools developed during the Industrial Revolution rather than shifting to an approach congruous with the modern workplace. An example of this is the strategy employed at ill-fated Enron, which the author pegs as “performance appraisal on steroids.” At Enron, employees were ranked as either an “A” (superior status with perks, and entitled to do as they pleased), “B” (encouraged and rewarded, but at a much lower level than their “A” coworkers) or “C” (dismissed from the company). Hauck says this system undermined trust while allowing “heroes and heroines to run things the way they wanted—thereby creating competition, back-biting and hoarding of information”; not exactly a recipe for success. Instead of building up superstars, Hauck suggests organizations would be better served by a staff of engaged and committed employees that, as a unit, can achieve effective, cohesive performance. The book’s three main leadership tenets are as follows: manage the context, environment or system within which employees operate; employ a model that evaluates the effectiveness of the system; and manage and enhance trust of employees within the given system. Building on the philosophy of NFL coach Bill Walsh, Hauck clearly states and develops his thesis of addressing and fixing the systemic root of organizational dysfunction. Real-life examples span the gamut from the upper echelons of corporate America (as in the case of Enron) to a simple systems fix (use of an egg timer) that helped the author’s daughter catch her school bus on time.
A holistic, well-organized and groundbreaking guide for managers in the information age.Pub Date: Dec. 21, 2010
ISBN: 978-0982959107
Page Count: 109
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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