Bad management—chances are we have either worked under bad management or we know someone who has. The harmful effects of a bad manager often extend as far as the private lives of staff, but the more obvious effects can be seen inside the workplace. Sadly, bad bosses are not all that uncommon. But there is hope. There is a trend toward doing good, and smart companies are finding this out quickly. In the hyper-connected world, there is no hiding bad behavior. Successful companies are the ones that do good work, and do it in a way that’s good for all involved. Managers are part of this equation. This is the focus of Peter Shankman’s new book, Nice Companies Finish First.

The fundamental principle that drives Nice Companies Finish First is the idea that goodness begins at the top. It’s difficult for a company to see pervasive goodness if the managers are not modeling the kind of behavior that creates success. Shankman leads with a list of 9 ‘do-nots’, which he calls ‘The 9 Warning Signs of a Hopeless Jerk’. The list is a sequence of ‘I’ve seen that before’ traits, but maybe the most commonly witnessed is this one:

Know-It-All-Dictator: The top dog doesn’t leave room for disagreements out of a sense of personal insecurity, arrogance, or both. The loyalty of the few cronies he or she has is built on fear, and so isn’t authentic friendship. [...] This often results in a dulled level of commitment and enthusiasm on the part of other employees and partners who may stop telling the truth, or even start lying just to avoid the boss’s wrath.

This list of hopelessly jerky behaviors is a nice starting point. If you’re a manager, you’ll likely find it impossible not to check your own management style against the list. But that’s only the beginning. Shankman follows this with nine chapters that delineate behaviors antonymous to the nine jerky behaviors.

Leading the ‘guide’ on management behavior is “Enlightened Self-Interest”, which Shankman describes as the underpinning of successful leadership:

…the act of doing something that benefits you and your constituents, whoever they may be. It’s such a crucial concept because it represents the ultimate combination of human nature and strategic thinking.

Shankman follows this with additional traits, like “Strategic Listening” and another crucial one: “Gives a Damn.” The interesting thing about Shankman’s list of positive behaviors is that much of what appears to make up a good manager also happens to be worthwhile behavior for any human being, in almost any kind of relationship. And this brings us back to that all-encompassing strategy that defines the future: be good. Of course it takes a lot of experience and deep knowledge of your market in order to lead a company, but equally important are those traits that make a person good. Turn yourself into that kind of manager, and watch all of your staff inject that positivity into every corner of your company.

The point of the book is driven home by what might seem like an unlikely example: the singer Tony Bennett. Shankman shares his experience with Bennett and the impact it’s had on his professional career, and then asks, “What to these anecdotes have to do with leadership and success?” But after a brief re-cap of the singer’s career, Shankman reminds us of what has been perhaps one of the most important aspects of his success: “Tony Bennett is a nice person.” Of course his music is well-loved, but his good character is what has opened the door. Of course, you might be thinking, “Well that’s simple enough. Why do I need a book to tell me to be nice?” And maybe you don’t. But if it were that simple, why are they still publishing management books?

In the world of professional work, there is a growing conversation about how work can be done and what is most important to a company and its staff. In 2010, we selected Rework as Business Book of the Year because if offered fresh thought on everyday business operations; it gave affirmation to the companies that were saying, “the old way is not the only way.” Pragmatic companies and their leadership teams have begun to tolerate and even embrace practices like telecommuting, choosing to focus on the results, rather than the process. CultureRx founders Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler have long been engaged with this conversation. In 2008 they published Why Work Sucks, a manifesto that advocates a shift of focus from old-fashioned means of measuring work to a simpler way: look at the results. Continuing the conversation, Thompson and Ressler are back with a new book that tailors the results-oriented approach to the needs of leaders: Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It.

Why Managing Sucks is built on the same foundation as Why Work Sucks, both of which espouse this single fundamental point: focus on the results, not the process. Ressler and Thompson introduce the book with some pretty convincing arguments, namely that people (your employees) work happier and better when they are in control of their time (and subsequently in control of their lives). The introduction presents 13 guideposts for managers to seek on their way to creating a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). My favorite of these guideposts are:

#5 … Work isn’t a place you go; it’s something you do.

#13 … There is no judgment about how you spend your time.

When I read admonition like this, I automatically think, “Of course! This is excellent advice.” After all, an organization’s expenses and revenue are related to the results of their people’s work, not so much the time devoted to a specific job. I also know that ROWEs are a rarity in the professional world, despite the seeming trend toward more ‘flexible’ work arrangements. But as this book states early on, there is a significant difference between an organization with flexible scheduling and a ROWE.

…flexible schedule is an oxymoron. By definition, there’s nothing flexible about a schedule.

A ROWE gives each and every person complete control over their time, and not just some of it—all of it.

Managers might be hesitant to even entertain completely handing over control of employees’ time, and with good reason. Managing a ROWE is quite different from managing employee time and trying to figure out whether or not any or all of that time was well-spent or crucial to the organization’s what. But as Thompson and Ressler underscore in chapter 2, “Motivate Me”, there is intrinsic motivation for employees who are free to work when and how they prefer, and this is motivation that is otherwise hard-earned (or never earned) through more ‘traditional’ management means, whether it’s higher salary or other time-intensive activities that neither managers nor their staff enjoy.

From a management perspective, the ROWE concept reduces to one essential idea (even more essential than results): respect. Transforming your workplace to a ROWE will present an injection of respect between employees and their managers, and also between all staff and the work they’re accomplishing. A common response to ideas like ROWE would be, “Well that’s nice, but in the real world, we can’t all just show up whenever we please.” Though apathetic, there is some truth to this response. Maybe you’re a middle-manager who’d love to transform your workplace into a ROWE, but your manager (and her manager) won’t consider it. Early in the book, the authors say, “You’re either a ROWE, or you’re not. Period.” Perhaps, but if you’re aspiring toward bringing more respect to your relationships with your staff, Why Managing Sucks might still be your answer, regardless of whether or not you can go all-out ROWE. Whatever you call your new management program, you’re going to learn some important things about how to motivate your employees and how to shift focus from time spent to results.

Leadership on its own is hard work. Leaders require many skills, but one particularly important ability successful leaders must have is vision. Despite being clichés of success, companies like Amazon and Apple are time and again exemplary largely because their leaders have been able to visualize the future and steer their followers—employees and customers—toward this vision of the future. As important as vision is, a leader’s vision is almost useless if that leader can’t communicate her vision to her team. This is where David Sibbet’s new book Visual Leaders enters the scene. How do we as leaders communicate with the people responsible for the multitude of different operations that amount to the larger function of moving our organization forward? As Sibbet demonstrates, there is a new trend in leadership communication, and it dovetails beautifully with the very idea of vision.

Sibbet kicks the book off with a kind of overview, “Seven Essential Tools for Visual Leaders”. This includes more basic principles such as metaphors and models, but it also holds specific tools, such as video and virtual visualization via digital media. The underlying idea is, of course, that communication that goes beyond simple text will create a better learning experience. Certain cognition theory reinforces this; there is a benefit to using symbols or images in conjunction with text, and Sibbet’s tools all stem from this fundamental idea.

The book offers HeathEast Care System in St. Paul, Minnesota as a case study. Over the course of two years, two of HeathEast’s mid-level managers created what they call a ‘Quality Vision’, a clear and highly visual description of the direction of their organization. This was then shared with staff and the visualization has helped HeathEast focus on the big-picture goals, turning those goals into more than nebulous ideas or business-speak.

Visual Leaders delivers on its promise, offering actual tools for visually communicating and documenting ideas, as well as the tools to roll these ideas into powerful visualizations that can be shared both inside and outside the walls of your organization. Sibbet offers an understanding of mental models, and this connection helps to propel the implementation of the more template-oriented content in the book. If you’ve been bumping your head against a wall in search of new ways to help your management communicate with each other and the rest of your organization, Visual Leaders might just be the book you’ve been looking for.