Leading with Humanity: Upcoming Mindjet Webinar

I invite all of you to join me January 24th at 2pm EST (11am PST) for a free webinar that I'll be doing for Mindjet, makers of MindManager software. In this webinar, I'll share insights from Managing the Gray Areas, and will discuss how MindManager can be used to support the themes and principles in the book.

This webinar is by no means a sales pitch. It'll be chock full of valuable information and an opportunity to get an early look at the book's many lessons. Hope to see you there.

Visit the Mindjet Blog for more info or to register.

Managing the Gray Areas: Now Available on Amazon.com

Just an FYI to PMThinkers who've been waiting for Managing the Gray Areas to be available on Amazon.com... I"m happy to say it's now available! The official release date is tomorrow, January 15, 2008.

Here's the link to the Amazon page for the book. Of course, it's also available direct from RMC Publications as well.

Managing the Gray Areas Available for Pre-Order

Just thought I'd pass the word along to PMThinkers that my latest book, Managing the Gray Areas, is now available for pre-order from RMC Publications. The book will be released on or before January 15th, but RMC is extending a substantial 40% discount for those who pre-order before then.

Those familiar with my writing and interests won't be too surprised to know that I've pulled lessons from a variety of genres, including philosophy, science, art, medicine, business, history, and more.

The book examines the "real world" gray areas most leaders struggle with, and addresses tough questions, such as:

• How can I be sympathetic to my people’s needs in the face of organizational pressures
• When should I share the big picture with my team and when is it prudent not to?
• Is it best to assemble a team of targeted specialists, or should I look for people who can do a little of everything?
• How can I implement and enforce internal processes without hurting morale or stifling creativity?
• How can I ensure adequate accountability without resorting to micromanagement?
• Given limited time and/or money, should I first focus on creating a good image for my organization, team, or product, or should I spend more time ensuring that it functions well?
• Should I centralize my organization to gain economies of scale, or should I decentralize to take advantage of local or regional expertise?

It examines themes such as ideals (standing for something), leading by questioning, systems thinking, and empathy and cultural awareness. It also highlights organizations that have been successful in challenging the status quo, dealing with complexity, and embracing the gray areas.

Ultimately, the book makes the case that we need to integrate and blend seemingly opposing choices and/or values, as opposed to taking black and white approaches to problems and decisions. Life is never that easy. Nor is leadership.

Here's the link to pre-order if these topics interest you ...

Managing the Gray Areas - RMC Project Management

Followup to Napoleon on Project Management Announced

Now that the press release is out, I'm pleased to announce the followup book to Napoleon on Project Management.

Tentatively titled Managing the Gray Areas, the book touches on many topics, such as principles, ethics, decision-making, incentives, staffing, critical thinking, and communication. For those familiar with my writings on lessons from history, rest assured that there will be plenty of lessons from history, as well as from philosophy, science, art, medicine, and business. Ultimately, it's a book about leading with humanity.

I'm also happy to announce that the book will be published by RMC Publications, the publishing arm of Rita Mulcahy's RMC Project Management. Many of you are familiar with Rita and her organization from their superb training products and services. Making this deal especially appealing was their shift in strategy toward taking on a small selection of new books (including general management and leadership books), and building products and services around them. I'm honored to be the first author to be signed to their organization under this new strategy.

I decided to write this book to address the many challenges that leaders face for which there is no easy answer. While consultants and magazine articles promote quick fixes and universal formulas, management is never that simple. In the book, I address tough questions, such as:

• How do you balance the need for responsiveness to the customer with the need for process control within your department or team?
• How do you maintain visibility of available resources without adding undue bureaucracy to your staff?
• How can you manage your time effectively, yet remain available to your people?
• Are recurring meetings effective or are they time wasters?
• When should you share the big picture with your team and when is it prudent not to?
• Should one person be expected to serve as a strategist and a tactician?
• Which is better; a generalist or a specialist?
• Which will give the biggest return; a good image or high quality?
• What should you do when an ethical dilemma challenges your core principles?

A while back, I entered some blogs on PMThink related to these topics, based on the two-day seminar I conducted in Philadelphia with productivity consultant Jerome Jewell. Since then, I did some fine-tuning and further research and saw the need for this book.

Of course, you can expect to see more blogs related to my research as I write the book, and from time to time I may ask for your opinions and examples. Meanwhile, here's the press release from RMC Publications...

RMC Publications Signs Agreement with Best-Selling Author Jerry Manas