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5+ stars for The Successful Manager by James Potter #business #management #nonfiction #bookreview



Title: The Successful Manager: Practical Approaches for Building and Leading High-Performing Teams

Author: James Potter, Mike Kavanagh

Genre: Business Management, Business Leadership


Book Blurb:


Being a manager is one of the most challenging roles a person can take on in their professional life. When done extremely well, it catapults a person into career success and unlocks a team’s full potential. Yet, few people are provided with real training, coaching, or tools on how to manage well. In this landmark book, James Potter and Mike Kavanagh dissect every aspect of becoming a top-tier manager and distill it into practical tools and techniques—perfect for brand new and experienced managers alike. Clear, insightful, and eminently approachable, The Successful Manager is like sitting down for a cup of coffee with a world-class mentor who offers you the keys to mastering the art and science of successful management.


My Review:


The Successful Manager is the best book on managing I have ever read. This book should be mandatory reading for every current manager and anyone who aspires to be one. If you are about to become a manager for the first time, read this book.


James Potter and Mike Kavanagh have created an easily readable, well written and smooth flowing book detailing managerial life.


What struck me over and over is how past people I knew as managers have made the mistakes highlighted in this book. It is a fact that, if those mistakes hadn't been made, I might still be working at that job. In some ways, bad management decisions helped me to a better life. That isn't the point of this book. This book will be key to creating a successful manager. The Successful Manager could be critically important to allow current managers to self evaluate. If you read this book and find you have made decisions that are pointed out as bad here, change your ways.


One of the best aspects of this book is the key point - give praise. Some managers are only heard from when a mistake happens. If an employee does a great job 19 days out of 20, he should be commended on those 19 days.


An absolute gem of a book for the management field. A brilliant work that is much needed and needs to be a must-read for every person affiliated with management.


My Rating: 5+ stars


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Author Biography:


James and Mike met while working at a boutique management consulting firm in Massachusetts. While their careers diverged into different industries, one thing remained the same - the need for concrete and practical approaches to navigating the job of being a manager.


James Potter is a Managing Director and Practice Leader at Blue Ridge Partners, a global management consulting firm that focuses exclusively on accelerating profitable revenue growth. Mr. Potter has helped over 90 organizations unlock potential by crafting new growth strategies, developing offer and go-to-market innovation capabilities, designing new commercial effectiveness systems, and coaching management teams to think through their most complex problems. The measure of Mr. Potter's success is not pretty PowerPoint presentations or 2x2 frameworks, but the results he drives on his clients’ income statements and the critical thinking he helps organizational leaders embed across their teams to support sustainable growth.


Mike Kavanagh is a personal coach, an author, a meditation and breathwork teacher, an executive coach, and the founder of Back to the Breath (visit https://backtothebreath.org/ or subscribe to the Back to the Breath podcast). All of his work is focused on personal transformation and helping people live their best lives possible. Mike's Life & Career coaching practice is dedicated to helping people get unstuck in any area of their lives and reach their potential, including finding and pursuing their true calling. His Business & Executive coaching is focused on embodying what he calls "enlightened leadership," the intersection of peak performance, values-based leadership and deep inner satisfaction at work. And his Health & Fitness coaching takes a holistic approach to helping people reach their next level in life. Rooted in the timeless teachings that have become such an integral part of his life, Mike's approach is grounded in his belief that unshakable well-being can be a reality for anybody who truly wants it.


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Reviewed by: Mr. N

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