Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

by Erika Andersen

“If life were fair, employees would be perfect. They would do exactly what we asked them to do, exactly when we asked them to do it – except, of course, for the fantastic ideas they would cook up on their own…Back to reality. Your employees are, like you and me, flawed and hopeful human beings whose success is at least partly dependent on your skill as a manager, human beings who will thrive with skillful and consistent attention and wither without it.”

In business today we’re told that management development is a thing of the past. Staying limber, preparing to change hats at a moment’s notice, and keeping your finger on the pulse of the “new” – that’s what we’re told is critical.

At this moment when companies and managers aren’t focusing on the long haul, Erika Andersen says just the opposite. If you want to compete with the market leaders, grow your business, and succeed in your field, you need support: an all-star staff that epitomizes your company’s mission and has the skills to implement it.

How do you achieve this? Grow great employees.

For twenty-five years Erika Andersen has been helping some of the best-managed companies in the world develop their employees. In Growing Great Employees you’ll learn how they stay ahead of the competition by investing in their people. You’ll discover that:
• Listening is your most powerful asset. Use it to motivate and build commitment.
• Everything you know about interviewing is wrong. Find out how to discover what you really need in a potential employee and how to find it.
• Successful companies hire for keeps. Get people feeling like part of the team from day one.
• Great leaders surround themselves with the best. Recognize who has potential and develop them into tomorrow’s leaders.

Whether you’re a manager or a senior executive, Growing Great Employees is your guide to creating a dynamic workplace where the efforts you make with your employees today will blossom into success for years to come.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Management, Nonfiction, Buisness, Business Leadership, Professional Development

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Erika Andersen is the founding partner of Proteus, a coaching, consulting, and training firm that focuses on leader readiness. For almost forty years, Erika has developed a reputation for creating approaches to learning and business-building that are tailored to her clients’ challenges, goals, and culture.

She and her colleagues at Proteus focus uniquely on helping leaders at all levels get ready and stay ready to meet whatever the future might bring. Much of her recent work
has focused on organizational visioning and strategy, executive coaching, and management and leadership development. In these capacities
she serves as consultant and adviser to the CEOs and/or top executives of a number of corporations, including Spotify, Facebook, Spectrum, Novartis, Revolt Media, and CBS Sports.

Erika shares her insights about creating and leading successful businesses by speaking to corporations, nonprofit groups, and associations. Her books and learning guides have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, German, French, Russian, and Chinese, and she has contributed to and been quoted in a variety of national publications, including the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and the New York Times.

Erika is also a popular leadership contributor at Forbes.com. In addition to Change from the Inside Out, she is the author of Be Bad First— Get Good at Things FAST to Stay Ready for the Future; Leading So People Will Follow; Being Strategic: Plan for Success; Outthink Your
Competitors; Stay Ahead of Change; and Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers. Finally, Erika is the author and host of the Proteus Leader Show, a regular podcast that offers
quick, practical support for managers and leaders.

Reviews

[Erika Andersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the risk being completely self-aggrandizing: I wrote this book and think it's really quite good!

;-)

Erika

[Iman Shabani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful tips plus a set of interesting notes to dig into. I can recommend this to anyone looking for what the main part of the title literally offers.

[Sina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to have a look at! Especially last few chapters where it provides some practical ways of dealing with different types of employees

[Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I've read too many business book recently. The most important step in "Growing Great Employees" is to listen to them, really listen. I did like the fact that the way she organized the book you could read the first paragraph and skim the entire chapter and then read a chapter summary at the end, it made for a real quick read.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic practical management book. It does not provide theory but rather a clear guide for some of the biggest management challenges: hiring the right people, providing feedback, delegating, coaching and firing. It provides helpful frameworks, exercises and clear examples. I think the best results would come from reading this book quickly the first time and then referring back to it when facing a management challenge. I thought the gardening metaphor was going to get repetitive or annoying, but Erika is a strong writer and uses the metaphor well throughout the book. Major kudos for writing a practical management book that provides guidance for some of the most common, challenging management issues.

[Viet Hung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great work

I wish I read this 12 years ago, once I was about to be promoted to manager position. This book covers all things a manager needs to know and deals with. And the book also suggests frameworks, principle to make it work effectively and positively.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the more practical leadership books I’ve read. I love the “try it yourself” sections. I’ve found myself already using her suggestions at work.

[Vasiliy Sikorskiy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Если с места в карьер, то впечатления от книги следующие - однозначно читать всем, у кого есть люди в подчинении (явном или условном). Более того, навыки формирования обратной связи, делегирования, создания договоренностей очень полезны в любой совместной деятельности в принципе (семья, некоммерческий проект, развитие дружеских отношений). В книге есть простые и понятные решения по тому, как развивать сотрудников, как решать возникающие проблемы, как предупреждать эти проблемы. Очень полезными являются конкретные диалоги и примеры в контексте рабочих ситуаций. Иногда немного затянуто, но в целом очень практично и применимо. Есть ли что-то революционное в книге - то, что я не смог бы придумать самостоятельно? Скорее нет, чем да. Но! она дает множество фреймворков и за тебя создает структуру взаимодействия. Самостоятельно этого обычно не делаешь - не хватает времени, энергии, где-то уверенности. Просто прочитать книгу не достаточно, на мой взгляд, ее нужно обработать и превратить в инструментарий - рабочий «портфельчик», который ты достаешь в случае конкретных проблем. Лично я сделал это с помощью структурирующего майнд-мэпа. Думаю, что мы в Юниум сделаем большой тираж этой книги и будем помогать с ее помощью расти всем новым (и не только) руководителям

[John-Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent primer into the world of managing employees, Andersen employs an effective (if not occasionally tortured) metaphor of gardening to show, from start to finish, how a good manager leads and nurtures their team. I thought the frequent exercises were very helpful to get the reader off their theoretical duff and actually practicing some of the concepts explained and I particularly enjoyed the model Andersen employed, including the Learning Path.

As a trainer, I was interested in her discussion of the various social styles, as our department works with all the other members of the organization and thus we are called to be flexible in our style (which is certainly not an easy trait and requires some mastery, which Andersen addresses at the end of the book).

I think this book could be a great text for the novice as well as the veteran manager and I could see it being the type of work that managers who want to excel in their role will refer to throughout their career.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will not be for everyone. The author steps through things in a very logical, ordered process and leaves lot of room for you to apply the concepts to your own life with "exercises". I found the writing style clear and engaging. Some will probably find it pedantic and repetitive.

Which is their loss because this book is chock full of really good advice. From hiring to firing, making agreements to the dreaded delegation, coaching and more, this book lays out straighforward plans for helping grow your employees and create a highly productive team.

[Jeremy Cabral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of practical frameworks you can apply immediately

It was refreshing to read this book and not be exposed to the same management advice that most other books have.

The specific frameworks accompanied with documented conversations make this book incredibly effective.

[Khalid Hajeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manage your employees at your company like you manage your plants in your garden! Well, not exactly, but it is indeed a fascinating metaphor that is mentioned throughout the book.

"Growing Great Employees" by Erika Andersen is a unique management book that uses references to gardening as a guide to managing employees in your company. The author gives several simplified tips on management, most of which are backed up by her personal experiences in managing people as examples. She also provides 'Try It Out' sections within each chapter, where she encourages the reader to write notes and ideas for action based on the discussions in the respective chapter.

Readers will notice lots of emphasis put on the idea of coaching. The book is constructed around the idea of getting to know the employees enough first so that you, as a manager, can coach them and help them grow in a good work environment, like how plants grow in well-tended gardens. There are even parts of the book that discuss the dreaded scenario of dismissing troublesome employees, which can be thought of as getting rid of bad plants that take up unnecessary space in a garden.

Bear in mind that this book is aimed at individuals who are already managing employees. If you are a freelancer or not yet a manager of employees, you probably would be better off using the managerial tips in the book with others in your life instead. Still, the book is a good resource if you are aiming to become a manager or if you are training to be one.

Overall, "Growing Great Employees" is a creative management book that readers will enjoy if they want to read something that is quite different from the bunch of typical serious management books out there. Recommended to managers and business book readers.

[Janna Meta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helped

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing guide, very basic but easy concepts to understand.

[Ryan Munger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good chapters but most of the other book is not worth reading.

[Sarah]

*skimmed*
I hated the garden metaphor. Did not find the material to be groundbreaking in any way.

[Daniël Boerstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical tips and tricks to deal with employees. Every starting manager should read this and with that the management level already would rise drastically.

[Nguyet Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical and insightful book for managers. It offers step for common issues while leading a team and how to deal with it. Manager should read this.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical and easy to digest.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a manager, aspire to be a manager, have a manager, can spell manager, can read... then read this book. I thought, being a guy that doesn't care about gardening, that this book would be a drag. I was wrong. Great practical tips on better management.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a self-improvement style business book ... can you really ever give such a book more than three stars? Yet you may get something useful from it, an a-ha, a shift in perspective (or, if on a more profound topic than this or from a more profound writer than Erika Andersen) a complete paradigmatic twisting 1/2 pike ... but it's never a great "book." I guess what I'm getting at is that these types of books are judged very pragmatically. Do you manage people? Do you feel like there are skills involved in that, things that you actually need to formalize and practice? Do you feel like relationship oriented stuff in the workplace interferes with your ability to get right traction ... either too much friction or to much slippage? Then read it ... it'll take four hours to read and absorb and then as many hours to actually practice as you care to devote.

[Salem · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, Andersen grinds your face into the people-management-as-gardening metaphor on every single page. It's tedious, but also illustrative, so I'll cut some slack here.

Although I understand this was a comprehensive book on management, I would've been personally interested in less on hiring and more on managing people. However, considering the information provided on hiring is really good, this is a quibble.

Probably not destined to be my personal management bible, but a helpful read nonetheless.

[Leader Summaries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro Desarrollar empleados extraordinarios, de Erika Andersen.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: recursos humanos, atraer, motivar y retener a los empleados.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro Desarrollar empleados extraordinarios, 6 habilidades imprescindibles para dirigir personas en las organizaciones: Desarrollar empleados extraordinarios

[Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource with simple common sense ideas about employee guidance and growth. It is an enjoyable read with information that is applicable at all levels of development. I learned some good ideas that I can apply to myself as an employee communicating to my boss my needs, so that was an added value as well.

[Horacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lleno de herramientas practicas de management que de verdad se pueden usar en el dia a dia en la oficina. Estas herramientas son excelentes y estan descritas usando plantillas y guias paso a paso que las hacen usables inmediatamente.

[Alex Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much like plants in a beautiful garden, employees require the right care and skill from their managers in order for them to flourish. If you can consciously and skillfully tend to them, you will witness positive growth and productivity spread throughout your company.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not someone, who reads management books, typically. This one has some interesting tidbits for me. That being said, I am not sure how to evaluate it, since I haven't read extensively in this area.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely some excellent insights into differing work personalities and developing your employees. At times a little to process oriented, but I imagine some will find that quite useful.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my pick for my class. Fairly elementary, but I did like the gardening references.

[Mills College Library]

658.3124 A5444 2008