Relational Manager

Michael Schluter, John Lee David

Description

This inspiring new approach is based on extensive research by an expert on relationships and supported by a wealth of statistics and case studies. Relationships are at the heart of all that we do and achieve, indeed our very identity. When relationships are neglected in a business context, the authors argue, they lead to poor health, ineffective management and low output at work. The authors focus on 5 key components of successful relationships and how these can be achieved: Encounter (personal rather than impersonal contact is best); Storyline (strength of the relationship over time); Knowledge (how deeply is information shared?); Fairness (equal treatment and mutual respect); Alignment (sharing values, objectives and purpose).

Sujets

• Gestion et management

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780745959153
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for The Relational Manager
The Relational Manager delivers what it promises - a clear, straightforward and pragmatic guide to the importance of relationships at work. It is sensible, well judged and should provide an invaluable guide for busy executives who sometimes forget this central part of their work.
Rob Goffee, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School
When I first encountered the work of the Relationships Foundation, countless events and incidents in organizational settings over many years suddenly made sense. Michael Schluter and David Lee understand how people think and behave. Managing an organization mainly involves managing human beings. Relational thinking is a critical tool for those who aim to be better managers.
The Hon. Lindsay Tanner MP, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Australia
At the heart of every worthwhile activity are people and people thrive on strong relationships. Those leaders who understand this relational agenda are already well on their way to achieving their goals. The Relational Manager offers powerful insights and practical actions to help leaders bring out the best in themselves and the people they manage. In a world of stress and sleaze, it has never been more relevant.
Clive Mather, former Chairman of Shell UK and CEO of Shell, Canada
One of the most significant assets in any organization is its reputation. Its reputation is built through relationships, maintained through relationships and may even be destroyed through not nurturing relationships. This book will provide any director with valuable guidance to assist in establishing relationships with their stakeholders.
Lindie Engelbrecht, Chief Executive of the Institute of Directors, South Africa
The Relational Manager provides a comprehensive guide to the importance of building positive relations at work. It is practical, soundly based on research evidence and immensely readable. Whether you work in the private or public sector, in a small or large organization, the message of this book will transform your approach to relationships and to making a difference at work.
David Strang, Chief Constable, Lothian and Borders Police, UK
I ve read - or tried to read - quite a few books on management in my time and this one makes more sense than the rest. Though we often forget it, every business consists of multiple networks of social relationships. How well those relationships are working affects the success of the business. This little book exposes the ramifications of those relationships and suggests ways to make them more effective.
Ross Gittins, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
For those working in the public services this is a timely and accessible book. From health care to housing, management is no longer seen as a separate profession but as an essential dimension of every profession. The contemporary need for such universal and effective management is inextricably associated with the modern burden of more complex and novel relationships. These often extend well beyond past local and organizational boundaries. With its evidence-based protocols, matrices and checklists The Relational Manager offers relevant insights and usable techniques in simple formats that respond directly to all of us striving to manage in today s more demanding workplaces. It is a book that offers daily desk-side support.
Geoffrey Meads, Hon. Professor of International Health Studies, Institute of Health Sciences Research, University of Warwick, UK
In an age of fast-paced, competitive, high-tech business, The Relational Manager reminds us of what really matters: old-fashioned relationships. With concrete examples, specific suggestions and clear writing, The Relational Manager outlines how business leaders can be more effective in building a strong, relational workplace environment.
Dave Kansas, regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and author of The End of Wall Street as We Know It and How to Survive It
Applying relational thinking can help explain many of the more perplexing challenges businesses face today. This book shows that these relational dimensions can be understood, measured, and that strategies can be developed to improve the relational equity of a business or an individual executive. I commend this book to any business leader or management team looking for fresh inspiration on how to take their business forward .
Paul O Donnell, Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather, Europe, Africa, Middle East
The Relational Manager provides a compelling framework for understanding and measuring relational performance. I commend this book to all business managers who aspire to challenge the organizational status quo by developing, utilizing, and promoting effective relational skills in all of their professional and personal dealings.
Bruno Roche, Chief Economist, Mars, Inc.
To Phil, who walks the talk

Copyright 2009 Michael Schluter and David John Lee This edition copyright 2009 Lion Hudson
The authors assert the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A Lion Book an imprint of Lion Hudson plc Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com ISBN 978 0 7459 5368 7 (UK) ISBN 978 0 8254 7936 6 (US) ISBN 978 0 7459 5915 3 (epub) ISBN 978 0 7459 5914 6 (Kindle) ISBN 978 0 7459 5929 0 (pdf)
Distributed by: UK: Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4YN USA: Trafalgar Square Publishing, 814 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610 USA Christian Market: Kregel Publications, PO Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501
First electronic edition 2011
All rights reserved
Cover image: Robert Opie
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
In the quantum world, relationships are not just interesting; to many physicists, they are all there is to reality.
Margaret Wheatley
Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

About the Authors

Chapter 1 Relational Thinking

Chapter 2 Relational Proximity

Chapter 3 Relational Time management

Chapter 4 Relational Conversation

Chapter 5 Relational Finance

Chapter 6 Relational Office Culture

Chapter 7 Relational Systems

Chapter 8 Relational Work-Life Balance

Chapter 9 Relational Travel

Chapter 10 Relational Conflict Resolution

Chapter 11 Relational Pensions

Chapter 12 Relational Character

A Relational Rule of Life

Notes
Acknowledgments
We are much indebted to our wives, Auriel and Loralee, whose support has made the writing possible. We would also like to thank those whose generous financial support helped fund the writing and production of this book, and also the many others who shared with us their expertise or commented on the manuscript. Among these are John Ashcroft, Will Candler, Roy Childs, Gideon Hudson, Nick Isbister, Harvey and Kelly McMahon, Clive Mather, Alison Myers, David Parish, Tim Passingham, Jonathan Rushworth, Paul Sandham, Mark Scholefield, Paul Shepanski, Jonathan Winter and David Wong. A special word of thanks is due to Marilyn Collins, who coordinated communication for the project, and to Stephanie Heald, who first saw the possibility of writing a book of this kind.
Preface

At the beginning of the 1990s, we began to discuss a book on relationships. What finally emerged from that discussion was a book called The R Factor - a fairly substantial work on political economics.
What we proposed was a simple but radical idea. Society is a network of relationships, private and professional. If those relationships don t work, quality of life goes down and organizational performance suffers. Consequently, it s in everybody s interest to make sure that relationships work well.
We set out to show just how far-reaching the effects of poor relationships are, and put forward a framework for a relationships approach to policy-making and management.
The book gave rise to a Cambridge-based think and do tank called the Relationships Foundation. Since the publication of The R Factor in 1993, the Relationships Foundation has developed a number of major initiatives, showing that a relationships approach is effective in policy areas as diverse as criminal justice, healthcare and tackling unemployment. (For more information, see www.relationshipsfoundation.org.)
The extensive research and praxis of the Relationships Foundation provides the core thinking behind The Relational Manager.
The world relationships is now in widespread use among those who write about management. As it becomes harder to differentiate products, so more emphasis is placed on the organization s relationship with the customer, on productive teamwork and on helping staff to resolve tensions between the worlds of work and life.
What nobody has done is place all this thinking on a simple, understandable and practical premise. We believe that the relationships approach outlined in this book constitutes a genuinely new way of going about the job of management.
Astute readers will notice that in a number of places we have drawn on our earlier work, published by the Relationships Foundation, entitled The R Option .
Directly and indirectly, many people have contributed to the ideas in these pages. We acknowledge them all. Any errors or deficiencies remain the sole property of the authors.

Michael Schluter and David John Lee
About the Authors

Michael Schluter
Michael Schluter studied Economics and Economic History at Durham University. He then did a PhD in Agricultural Economics at Cornell University in the USA, which involved eighteen months of fieldwork in India, based at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. He lived in Kenya from 1974 to 1982, working first as a manager for a local company setting up rural industries and then as a research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute and as a consultant economist with the World Bank.
He returned to the UK in 1982 to esta