GoodBossBadBossFor as long as I can remember, books have played a major role in my life.

I still recall the day my Mom took me to the Hild Library in Chicago for my first library card.  And I remember distinctly the scene a few months later, when she engaged in a vigorous discussion with the library staff on my need for an Adult card. I had consumed everything worth consuming in the Children’s section and needed to move on.  Mom prevailed, and the rest for me is reading history.

This preoccupation with reading continued through my summers as a child, including one memorable, slow, hot season reading the World Book from A to Z.  While it wasn’t Britannica, it was what we had in our apartment in Chicago. And yes, I read more than the cool transparent overlays.  I read the complete text.  Every entry.  It was a little like work, but I was on a mission.  As a result, I have a remarkable store of trivial knowledge on everything that happened in the world up until 1973.  Beyond that, I’m a bit fuzzy.

Fast forward a few decades, and books are still a major part of my life.  I’ve authored one, I’m working on another and I consume content in history, business and science in an unquenchable thirst to learn more. Given this preoccupation with the written word, it’s fitting and about time that I extend my love of books and regard for the hard work of authors to a feature here on the blog.  Thus, welcome to the first post and first interview for the Management Excellence Book Series.

About the Management Excellence Book Series:

First, I’m not a book critic, I’m a book lover.  You’ll never find a negative review here, because, if I don’t like the book, I won’t write about it or interview the author.  It is my intent to offer a resource with this series that extracts and shares insights and introduces you to new or time-tested great ideas.

I intend on using a mix of audio interviews (podcasts) and posts with transcribed interviews to share ideas and learn more from management book authors that have labored long and hard to help us learn and grow.  My mission is to search for the pearls of wisdom, the fresh ideas or the classic ideas that help us all make a difference.

While my audio interview skills are clearly in need of practice, there’s no reason not to start.  We are living in a period of time rich with the flow of information and ideas, and I’m excited to help all of us gain just a little bit more insight and context from great management thinkers for use in our professional and personal lives.

I look forward to sharing with you via the interviews.  Enjoy!

Art Interviews Bob Sutton About Good Boss, Bad Boss

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Good Boss, Bad Boss by Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D.

Just about everyone is familiar with Bob’s prior work, The No A**Hole Rule! Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t. That great read talked about what many of us have been thinking, and even made the “A” word acceptable business meeting and cocktail party discussion fodder (in the context of the book, of course!).

Bob is back with a tremendous new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss-How to Be the Best and Learn from the Worst, available for pre-order from major booksellers now, with a scheduled publication date of September 7th.

His emphasis in his latest work is on describing the good habits of great bosses, and once again, Bob is saying what many of us are thinking or, living through in our working lives. In this era of the seemingly “disposable worker,” and after a decade of corporate scandals and a great number of bosses doing the “perp walk,” Bob focuses squarely on what the best bosses do day-in and day-out. He contrasts the great habits of good bosses with the equivalent lousy habits and approaches of bad bosses, providing anecdotes and vignettes that we can relate to or anguish over.  We all know a few of the bad bosses.  Let’s hope that our good boss experiences outweigh those others.

I had the great fortune to connect with Bob recently on a phone call/interview, and our scheduled 10-15 minutes turned into 30 minutes of fascinating insights about the book, and about Bob’s work as a professor and consultant.  He was a delight to interview and I sincerely believe that you will find his insights and anecdotes as fascinating as I did.  Enjoy the interview and enjoy the book!

And finally, this section from the preface of his book sets the tone well:

“The best bosses don’t ride into town, save the day with a bold move or two, declare victory, and then rest on their laurels. There is no final victory.  The main reward for success is usually that you get to keep doing a damn hard (but often satisfying) job for a while longer.  Despite the horseshit spewed out by too many management gurus, there are no magic bullets, instant cures or easy shortcuts to becoming a great boss.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.  The best bosses succeed because they keep chipping away at a huge pile of dull, interesting, fun, rewarding, trivial, frustrating, and often ridiculous chores.  …Devoting relentless attention to doing one good thing after another-however small-is the only path I know to becoming and remaining a great boss.“

Nine chapters of pure boss gold!  Thanks, Bob!

Note from Art: Bob supplied me with a pre-release copy of his book for this interview.