Winning Well: A Manager's Guide to Getting Results---Without Losing Your Soul

by Karin Hurt, David Dye

To succeed in today’s hypercompetitive economy, managers must master creating a productive work environment for employees while still making numbers.

Tense, overextended workplaces force managers to choose between results and relationships. Executives set aggressive goals, so managers drive their teams to deliver, resulting in burnout. Or, employees seek connection and support, so managers focus on relationships and fail to make the numbers. However, managers need to achieve both.

In Winning Well, managers will learn how

Stamp out the corrosive win-at-all-costs mentalityFocus on the game, not just the scoreReinforce behaviors that produce resultsSustain energy and momentumBe the leader people want to work forTo prevent burnout and disengagement, while still achieving the necessary success for the company, managers must learn how to get their employees productive while creating an environment that makes them want to produce even more.

Winning Well offers a quick, practical action plan for making the workplace productive, rewarding, and even fun.

Genres: Management, Leadership, Business, Buisness

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2016

About the author

KARIN HURT is a top leadership consultant and CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders. A former Verizon Wireless executive, she was named to Inc. Magazine’s list of great leadership speakers.

Reviews

[Karen Jackson]

Winning Well is an amazing book. This isn’t one of those books you read, remember and put away; this is a book that I will be keeping on my desk as a how-to reference book. The ideas laid out in this book are broken into easy to use sections, so whenever I have a question about how to handle certain management situations, I’ve got a reference book to go to for specific, actionable things that I can do. The goal of the authors is to show a manager how to do their work and get results. Early in the book, they describe four different types of managers: user managers, gamer managers, pleaser managers, and winning well managers. My goal, naturally, was to see if my actions aligned with the “Winning Well” manager descriptions. Often, I would find some of my techniques aligning more with some of the other descriptions. The good news for me was that the authors didn’t make me feel bad about the mistakes I have made – they’ve made the same mistakes themselves – and they offer positive encouragement on how to improve my work. They even have a section describing what was going on in my head as I mentally tore myself down for my bad techniques! With humor and clarity of thought they made me feel better about my chances for success going forward.

The book is more than just a reading exercise – there are places to actually practice your new skills now or in the future, whenever you decide to take action to practice the new skills. I didn’t do all of the activities myself… but like I said earlier, this book will be on my desk to be my reference whenever I need tips on how to run better meetings (my favorite section), motivate employees, support teammates, and improve my own thought process. There are great areas for reflection in this book as well. I recommend it not just for managers, but for people who are looking to become managers someday. This book will give you some ideas on how to approach your next leadership opportunity.

[Andrea Carlevato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid overview of key team management principles. Nothing groundbreaking if you have been consuming similar literature in the past though. I like how the author presents common mistakes and signals of negative things to come. Also quite light on the "real life situations" bits, which is something i feel many author add a filler in similar texts, which i like.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some helpful tips for thinking about managerial relationships. A lot of the questions get at the heart of building meaningful relationships in general; and I'm on board with the idea of creating long-term success/results by building sustainable models for discussing visions and goals with one's team (and, in particular, having difficult conversations). I did get annoyed by the continual use of the phrase, "your people," as if the team you manage is comprised of mindless minions. It seems to go against the argument for humanity and empathy in the rest of the book -- especially since the foundation of the argument here is that managers need to accept their own humanity and vulnerability in order to manage their teams well.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found myself highlighting so much of the book, my wrist got tired, or rather my finger as I was reading the e-book edition. Spot on, right to the points, and very practical. I've learned many of these lessons the hard way, and plan to keep referring back to this as a reference for those times of Doubt and chaos. Definitely on the giveaway to people I am mentoring list. Highly recommended and accessible for both the seasoned manager and the aspiring or newly promoted..

[Will Atkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

It depends

You really need to be actively involved with projects to get the most use out of this book. Even if you expect to lead people in a project later, it will seem less useful.

[Scott Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book. A lot of very good concrete steps, plans, and processes. Very, very helpful...worth reading for any manager / cc leader

[Beth Beutler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I am a virtual assistant for the author(s) of this book but my thoughts are my own.

This is an exceptional book for those in any level of management. It "puts the cookies on the bottom shelf" by giving practical, actionable ideas. At the same time, it competently addresses management theory, sometimes debunking conventional wisdom that has become cliche (such as giving feedback in a "sandwich" format...we all see through that.)

The book also has a number of illustrations from the authors that bring the concepts to life. It is also easy-to-read. Each chapter took me about 15 minutes, and the authors include an action plan at the end of each one.

This book should be on every manager's "must read" list. I am delighted to be on the author's team because I really believe in what she advocates for leadership attitudes and behavior. Reading this book only confirms that.

[Haur Bin Chua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winning well is about winning the right way, all the time. It is not a short term spurt or squeezing others to achieve short term results.

Four principles of winning well:
Internal: confidence & humility
External: results & relationships

Focus on people behaviour to drive performance. Respect one another, delegate to the right level and hold them accountable. Set the right direction & motivate the people to do what they're supposed to do and do them well. That can only be done when you have trust and credibility amongst our team. Spend time to build that trust; communicate, communicate, communicate & be authentic.

At the end of the day, the true legacy we leave behind are the impact we have on the people around us.

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winning Well is an excellent book on management. It's set up more like a textbook, where you can read the chapter you need at the moment, rather than a book to be completely read in one sitting. By exploring the Table of Contents and the Index I was able to find chapters dealing with my specific struggles easily. The authors provide clear and practical advice that can be easily implemented (like any task, it requires work and follow-through of course!) At the end of each chapter are also resources, questions, etc to help the reader self-evaluate.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's in a managerial position and has ever wondered "How can I do better?"

[Igor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book 3.5 stars. Information here is not earth shattering, however, I was able to highlight over 30 things in this book. Useful for managers of all kinds.