The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done

by Peter R. Scholtes, Russell L. Ackoff (Foreword)

Peter Scholtes has written a book for managers that does what "The Team Handbook" did for teams. He explains how managers can inspire their people and manage the daily workflow for maximum productivity and includes exercises and activities at the end of each chapter to help managers start implementing new ideas immediately.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Management, Nonfiction, Productivity, Business Leadership

415 pages, Spiral-bound

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Peter Raymond Scholtes was a priest, consultant, and author. In the 1960s, as a parish priest and choral conductor, Scholtes wrote the hymn "They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" for an ecumenical event.
By the 1980s, Scholtes had left the priesthood and become a business management consultant and author. He co-authored The Team Handbook, which was named one of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. His best-known book is The Leader's Handbook, from 1998.
Scholtes was a colleague of W. Edwards Deming and was a recipient of the Deming Award in 2006.

Reviews

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Leader's Handbook takes years and years of research, and new management ideas, and ties them all together, beautifully. Deming was right, but it was often difficult to translate his work out of manufacturing, or to point to the scientific support for his ideas.
Peter Scholtes has put together a more approachable take on Systems Thinking, based on the work of the great Japanese and American systems thinkers, and backed by the work of Alfie Kohn, and Action Science researchers.
That he manages to do this in a holistic way, without obvious seems or disconnects, speaks both to his understanding of the subject, and the cohesiveness of our growing understanding of how the human mind and social interactions work.
If you're looking for an eminently practical, completely doable, and very readable book on systems thinking, transformation, and change, start here. Read the rest if this gets you interested, but by itself, it should be enough to change your thinking, and your approach, to everything.

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a super book.
The detailing of every aspect of organization life from a systems thinking approach is outstanding. It covers manufacturing, production, operations, leadership, customer and human resources functions.
I wish it also contained perspectives on service industry or retail, though I think it would get covered from the customer perspective.

This is a must read for leaders, line managers, function heads, HR folk at all levels.

[Matthew Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Very practical advice with application suggestions. This resource will have a space on my desk, close at hand.

[Conlon Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite management book of all time. THis is what leadership is about. Creating systems so that others can get their work done. Everyone wants to do work worth doing. The leader makes sure the work is worth doing and makes sure the work can be done effectively.

Sholtes is part of the Demings school of management. I'd like to think I operated that way, too. Respect for everyone. Listen tothe people doing the work. Make sure they have what they need to do good work. Continuous process improvement for them -- so they can do better work.

Just a great read with practical examples. Immediately applicable to to all leadership positions who care about their staff and their work.

[Bob Schatz]

One of the best, most practical, books on leadership and process improvement. Plenty of tools and techniques as well. Based on the Deming methods, so if you're becoming agile, put this on your list. Good for ScrumMasters, organizational leaders, and managers. Don't know how I missed this one in the past. It also led to the purchase of six other books that were referenced. That's a good sign!

[Jeanette Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept of "GEMBA" was very helpful.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok, some parts seem far-fetched and a tad boring at times- not bad for a book required for grad school

[Kate Millin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished having taken some months to read. Have found useful and used some of the concepts at work.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This provides good information on what to thinks about to understand Deming's methods and 14 points. A good read

[Derek Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read for those pursuing a career in management.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book in general. Lots of the same success and/or leadership principles you have read before.