I just finished “High Output Management” by Andy Grove (former CEO of Intel).
Amazing book. It has great answers to these questions. It’s uncommon to find clear advice that is this comprehensive. He builds an amazing framework for understanding the work of management. I’ll be coming back repeatedly.
Here are a few nuggets, they hardly do the book justice, but I want to share:
> The only way for a manager to increase their output is either to get more efficient at current activities, increase leverage of current activities, or switch to higher leverage activities
> Today’s gaps represent a failure of planning in the past. Ask as you plan “What do I have to do today to solve or avoid tomorrow’s problem?”
> When a person is not doing their job there can only be two reasons. They are either not capable or not motivated [“capable” includes communication issues]
> Performance reviews are the single most important form of task-relevant feedback managers can provide. Their fundamental purpose is to improve the subordinate’s performance.
Dan McMillen 