David Maister - Professional Business, Professional Life
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First Among Equals

Experienced, senior professionals, even those in large organizations, are often like free-agents, accustomed to having the autonomy to work with little supervision. If your role is to coordinate a group of such people, how do you actually add value as a group leader, or even get these people to accept your guidance?

How do you avoid unsettling group meetings where you meet for no clear purpose; where people drift in and out at random times; whre the power players dominate discussions; and everyone brings along their favorite axe to grind?

In this “play book”, we provide real-world examples, extensive self-evaluation materials, and offer concrete advice on stressful day-to-day management issues that every leader of professionals faces.

We discuss the basics of coaching, dividing our attention in the book equally between energizing and guiding the individual performer and the group.

We also discuss the critical role of (explicitly) agreeing your mandate both with those you coach and those to whom you report. If there is no agreement on what the job is, it is hard to perform it well!

Finally, the book discusses specific metrics that can be used to judge group performance and the performance of the group leader.

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