There are plenty of books about management, leadership, coaching.

And I've read many of them.

Especially as we've been scaling up at CHARLESGATE, adding team members, and filling in management ranks, I've been reading and thinking a lot about what we need to do to build a strong core of managers across the company.

The BEST (and it's not even close) book on management I've found is "When They Win, You Win" by Russ Laraway.

Some of the highlights:

• His Big 3 of Direction, Coaching, Career simplifies management to its core with a few simple, actionable frameworks to get aligned results from your team

• He builds confidence that anyone can be a good manager (not just "natural leaders"): Substance>Style

• The four-part Direction framework creates a long-term purpose to inspire your team and short-term goals & prioritization, aligned with company goals to drive your team to meaningful results

• He focuses on ruthless prioritization as a key to helping your team eliminate what's not important and focus on what is to move the business forward and actually achieve goals

• He simplifies coaching to its core to give clear feedback by coaching people empathetically how to continue doing what is working or improve what they can do better (with specific methods to do so)

• He provides practical ways to foster strong engagement from your team by showing that you care about them as people (like the unique career conversations and career action plan framework)

This isn't esoteric theory. It's a straightforward, clear roadmap to become a great manager. If you are at all interested in your own growth as a manager or that of your team, I can't recommend this book enough.

(And if you've read it, do you agree? Any other books or training for managers you would recommend?)