First Among Equals: How to Manage a Group of Professionals

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743225511 ISBN 13: 9780743225519

Publisher: Free Press, 2002

Managing people over whom you have no real power is a challenge, particularly in professional service firms where, increasingly, top professionals are being tapped to lead their peers. In this guide, two renowned consultants show professional group managers lacking formal authority how to lead colleagues to peak performance. They speak directly to those who have gone from focusing on their own performance to being a group manager in charge of leading others. From understanding the group leader role to setting terms of reference and effectively dealing with talented prima donnas, McKenna and Maister present a thorough introduction to managing and orchestrating talent.

Review:

Competently managing a group of peers is unquestionably among the most difficult of workplace tasks, but key steps that produce success are laid out so clearly by consultants Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister in First Among Equals that even those who completely lack experience should find the process feasible and effective. McKenna and Maister focus on leading teams of professionals--often composed of people who don't feel like they are part of a team or in need of leadership--by transforming the way managers assume responsibility and direct members. "Success in helping your group succeed is mostly about you. Not them," they write. Their book starts by explaining how to prepare for the job ahead, for example, by meeting informally with participants and displaying sincere interest in things that matter to them. It then explores coaching the individuals involved (offering methods for gaining acceptance, building rapport, assisting underperformers and dealing with prima donnas) and guiding the collective group (by developing rules, building trust, invigorating meetings, and resolving conflicts). Finally, it proposes measures for continued success, such as integrating new hires and gauging performance. Dozens of self-assessment questionnaires and diagnostic tests help make this an exceptionally practical guidebook on a critical but oft-neglected topic. --Howard Rothman

From the Inside Flap:

ADVANCE PRAISE

"A unique and very useful contribution to the field of leadership and management of professionals."

--Jon Katzenbach, co-author of The Wisdom of Teams

"McKenna and Maister turn the often elusive and obscure concept of leadership into something tangible and accessible. With rich detail and straight talk they offer practical lessons, usable tools, and case examples from the real world. This is advice and counsel you can trust, and every manager of professionals (no, every manager in any setting) should take it to heart."

--Jim Kouzes, co-author, The Leadership Challenge and Encouraging the Heart; Chairman emeritus, tompeters!company

"This book is a unique combination of good business, understanding of people and applied wisdom."

--Regis McKenna, author of Total Access, Real Time, and Relationship Marketing

"This book is truly a fire hose of practical, proven, workable advice and counsel that is intimately sensitive to the very special demands of professionals. It may well become the most dog-eared book in every firm--and with good reason."

--Jim Shaffer, author of The Leadership Solution

"First Among Equals delivers for newcomers and old pros alike. McKenna and Maister--polished professionals both--know how to work with enormously talented people, and they write with the kind of reassurance and calm confidence a professional group leader craves. The book's hands-on checklists are flat-out superb."

--Nancy K. Austin, co-author, A Passion for Excellence

"This is a fast-moving, practical book, full of proven strategies and techniques that you can use immediately to manage a professional group more effectively. These methods will help you get better results, faster, with your colleagues than you ever imagined."

--Brian Tracy, author of Focal Point, Success Is A Journey and Maximum Achievement

"This book is invaluable. McKenna and Maister have honed in with laser precision on a desperately important yet vastly under-addressed topic, to provide eminently practical advice and prescriptions for every leader of professional workers."

--Ross Dawson, author of Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships: The Future of Professional Services