The full title of this book by Gary Cohen is
“Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions“.
In my review posted to Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a rating of Four Stars. This means I think it is Good and Well Worth Reading.
Here is my book review.
A good book to dip into when you come up against a new management problem
The book is written on the premise that leaders are much more successful if they ask their team questions to focus attention and action rather than if they issue commands on the basis of “I’m the boss. I know best and you must do what I say.”
The book is based on interviews with nearly 100 highly effective leaders as well as the author’s own knowledge and experience.
It is very easy to read and is based around chapter themes and a series of questions and answers. I found that as I read the questions, my mind was automatically forming an answer and I therefore had my view – albeit hastily formed – to compare to the book.
The Chapters are:
1 – Improve vision – gaining insight from all levels of the organisation
2 – Ensure accountability – increasing team and organisation wide performance
3 – Build unity and cooperation – creating a culture of trust
4 – Create better decisions – getting the right answers by asking the right questions
5 – Motivate to action – asking for success
To give you an example of the questions asked and answered, let’s take a look at accountability as I know that as an issue for many small businesses.
The questions include:
1 – How do I get my co-workers to stop repeating the same mistakes?
2 – Why do my co-workers ask me questions that they should (and often do) know the answers to?
3 – Why are my direct reports coming to me with problems that are not my responsibility?
4 – How can I reduce a co-worker’s fear of failure?
As you can see, these are real questions and not pie in the sky concepts from academia. This is a good book to dip into when you come up against a new management problem or where you become so frustrated that you decide you really must take action and fix the root cause.
It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
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