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Understanding and Changing Your Management Style » (1 ED)

Book cover image of Understanding and Changing Your Management Style by Robert Benfari

Authors: Robert Benfari
ISBN-13: 9780787908584, ISBN-10: 0787908584
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Date Published: September 1999
Edition: 1 ED

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Author Biography: Robert Benfari

Robert C. Benfari is a psychologist, business consultant, and trainer who has been teaching and applying the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and other management assessment instruments in business settings for thirty years. He has worked with organizations throughout the world, including Raytheon and the U.S. government. He was a professor at the Harvard University School of Public Health and is currently Lecturer on Continuing Education at Harvard and visiting professor at the University de la Empresensa (Argentina). He is also president of BGL Ltd., a consulting firm.

Book Synopsis

Every manager wants to be a great manager. But some people just seem to be better cut out for the job, breezing through their responsibilities in ways that inspire loyalty, confidence, and results. Others seem always to be striving for greatness—always, somehow, falling short of the mark. Is there hope for the large number of managers who fall into that latter category?In Understanding and Changing Your Management Style, esteemed psychologist and business consultant Robert Benfari answers that question with a resounding YES! Benfari confirms that the ability to manage well involves six specific personality traits, all of which can be objectively analyzed and, more importantly, changed.Using a variety of self-analysis tools, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Benfari gives individual managers the means to rate themselves in terms of the six characteristics in question and to discover how their own personality affects their individual management style. He then shows managers how they can use that information to alter the way they handle people and situations and become stronger managers in the process.Benfari also teaches managers how to determine other peoples' personality type so that they can anticipate how those people will react in certain situations and respond to different management techniques. Managers will thus be able to interact with superiors, peers, and subordinates more effectively. They will also improve their ability to resolve conflict, solve problems, influence others, manage stress, and handle difficult situations on the job.Altogether, Understanding and Changing Your Management Style provides a valuable mix of assessment tools, real-world examples, and expert advice that every manager can use to better understand the dynamics of his or her personality-an understanding that can lead to the purposeful development of a superior management style.

Table of Contents

Prefaceix
About the Authorxiii
Introduction: What Makes a Good Manager?1
Part 1A Model for Change9
1The Dynamics of Management Style: What Can Be Changed?11
2Personality and Psychology: What's Your Type?23
3Practical Intelligence: How Do We Make It Work?56
4Mental Models: How Do We Make the Shift?66
Part 2The Elements of Management Style95
5Needs: The Drive Towards Competence97
6Power Bases: Influence, Authority, and Expertise122
7Problem Solving and Conflict Management: Catalysts for Change146
8Values: Clarifying What You Stand For169
9Stress: Managing Work and Difficult People187
10Putting It All Together: Developing an Action Plan for Your Management Style219
Appendix AThe Integrated Management Style Model237
Appendix BAssessment of Psychological Type238
Appendix CAssessment of Needs243
Appendix DInfluence Inventory249
Appendix EConflict Resolution Style Assessment252
Appendix FFour-Quadrant Problem-Solving Preference Assessment257
Appendix GValues Assessment260
Appendix HStress Assessments263
References271
Index275

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