John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Being a Brilliant Manager -- Contents -- Preface -- PART ONE: Understanding Your Role as Manager -- Sixteen Greatest Ideas for Effective Managership -- Idea 1: A brief history of managing and being a manager -- Idea 2: Case study - Henri Fayol -- Idea 3: Understanding Groups and Organizations -- Idea 4: The central functions of leadership and management -- Idea 5: Eight functions for brilliant managers to master -- Idea 6: Leadership (1) and leadership (2) -- Idea 7: Leaders and followers -- Idea 8: What gives you the right to manage? -- Idea 9: What you have to be or become -- Idea 10: What you have to know or learn -- Idea 11: Levels of business leadership -- Idea 12: Can you manage people? -- Idea 13: You don't need charisma -- Idea 14: Case study - Xenophon -- Idea 15: Four stages of learning to lead and manage -- Idea 16: A vision of excellence -- Eight Greatest Ideas for All Managers -- Idea 17: 25 qualities of excellent managers -- Idea 18: The good business leader -- Idea 19: Integrity -- Idea 20: Calm judgement -- Idea 21: Foresight -- Idea 22: Decisiveness -- Idea 23: Imaginative thinking -- Idea 24: Intellectual humility -- Follow-up test -- PART TWO: Managing for High Performance -- Eleven Greatest Ideas for Managership Skills -- Idea 25: Defining the task -- Idea 26: Thinking clearly about objectives -- Idea 27: Planning -- Idea 28: The decision-making continuum -- Idea 29: The planning/implementation ratio -- Idea 30: Briefing -- Idea 31: Controlling and coordinating -- Idea 32: Evaluating -- Idea 33: Supporting -- Idea 34: Six principles for motivating others -- Idea 35: Setting an example -- Seven Greatest Ideas for Team Leadership -- Idea 36: Your role as team leader -- Idea 37: Achieving the task - with a team -- Idea 38: Building the team -- Idea 39: Developing the individual.

Idea 40: Case study - John Hunt -- Idea 41: Eight hallmarks of a high-performance team -- Idea 42: A very short course on leadership -- Ten Greatest Ideas for Operational Business Leaders -- Idea 43: The generic role of operational leader -- Idea 44: Organizations as communication systems -- Idea 45: Information f lows -- Idea 46: A listening leadership -- Idea 47: How to manage meetings -- Idea 48: Appraising performance -- Idea 49: Case study - Constructive appraisal in action -- Idea 50: Six steps for solving problems -- Idea 51: Spot your problems early -- Idea 52: Seven useful skills for operational leaders -- Follow-up test -- PART THREE: Managing the Business -- Nine Greatest Ideas for Strategic Leadership Skills -- Idea 53: The art of being manager-in-chief -- Idea 54: Seven functions of strategic leadership -- Idea 55: Giving direction -- Idea 56: Strategic thinking and strategic planning -- Idea 57: Making it happen -- Idea 58: Relating the parts to the whole -- Idea 59: Building partnerships -- Idea 60: Releasing the corporate spirit -- Idea 61: Developing today's and tomorrow's leaders -- Five Greatest Ideas for Practical Business Wisdom -- Idea 62: The wisdom of business -- Idea 63: The folly of business -- Idea 64: Practical wisdom -- Idea 65: Integrity in business decisions -- Idea 66: To be a manager is a vocation -- Follow-up test -- PART FOUR: Managing Yourself and Your Time -- Six Greatest Ideas for Managing Your Time -- Idea 67: Reflective thinking -- Idea 68: Ten principles of time management -- Idea 69: Carry out a time audit on yourself -- Idea 70: Six organizing ideas to improve time management -- Idea 71: Delegate, delegate, delegate -- Idea 72: Learn to say no -- Eight Greatest Ideas for Decision Making -- Idea 73: The mind at work -- Idea 74: How intuitive are you? -- Idea 75: Five steps in making a decision.

Idea 76: A unisex model -- Idea 77: Face the cannons -- Idea 78: How to tackle systems problems -- Idea 79: People decisions -- Idea 80: A rock for decision makers -- Eight Greatest Ideas for Communication Skills -- Idea 81: The Communication Star -- Idea 82: Six rules for effective public speaking -- Idea 83: The art of listening -- Idea 84: The model of conversation -- Idea 85: Communication and relationships -- Idea 86: Important, relevant or interesting -- Idea 87: Practical presentation skills -- Idea 88: How to handle feedback -- Four Greatest Ideas for Delighting Your Customers -- Idea 89: How to create a delighted customer -- Idea 90: The art of building up goodwill -- Idea 91: How to respond to customer complaints -- Idea 92: Don't make promises unless you keep them -- Follow-up test -- PART FIVE: Managing Positive Change -- Eight Greatest Ideas for Leading Innovation -- Idea 93: Successful innovation -- Idea 94: Team creativity in action -- Idea 95: Harvesting ideas -- Idea 96: Ploughing the ground -- Idea 97: Market your ideas -- Idea 98: Have a practice run -- Idea 99: Make change incremental -- Idea 100: Communicate to innovate -- Follow-up test -- Appendix -- About John Adair -- Index.