When They Win, You Win: Being a Great Manager Is Simpler Than You Think

“Managers everywhere are systematically failing,” according to this cursory debut from Laraway, the chief people officer at Qualtrics, a management company. Citing studies that report “global employee engagement to be 15 percent, which is shockingly low,” Laraway encourages managers to keep team members motivated by applying his “big 3” approach: direction, coaching, and career guidance. This means ensuring “every member of their team understands exactly what is expected and when it is expected,” and coaching employees on both their short and long-term goals. Laraway makes a fine case for fairly standard business ideas, such as nailing down a “vision” and “purpose” to keep teams productive and on track, and dishes out a number of chatty stories about employee engagement turnaround at companies where he has worked. But he offers little beyond simplistic directives to solidify one’s mission, to care about employees as human beings, and to avoid bragging about overwork. While the presentation is peppy—“my dream is that readers of this book will join me in my quest to rid the world of assclown managers everywhere”—there’s not much new. The tone is a nice change from the status quo, but many managers will find most of this all too familiar. (June)