The executive career path.

November 17, 2005 4:02 PM

I am looking for a book (or three) that deals exclusively with the career path to executive, preferably with a thorough analysis of middle management. I can find far too many books that are little more than Managing for Dummies or on the other extreme, CEO biographies, but nothing in between. Thank you in advance for your recommendations.

I understand the value of a mentor once I am in a management position, but that is still a few months away (according to my doctor). For now, I want to gather as much book knowledge as I can get. This may entail jumping into graduate-level textbooks, and for their price, I would appreciate some worthy recommendations. Thank you again for your consideration.

posted by mischief to work & money (11 answers total)

One of the most highly regarded business books of all time is Iacocca, Lee Iacocca's biography, which details his rise to the top of Chrysler.

A book *about* being in middle-management and dealing with the stresses of daily life is called "Who Moved My Cheese."

I have not read either of these books, but they have gotten almost 100 percent positive reviews from those who have read them.

A book on a tangent to your topic would be "What Color Is My Parachute," which involves you giving yourself a thoroughgoing personal analysis vis a vis your priorities, preferences, and choices regarding your career path.

I hope these help.
posted by tarintowers at 4:17 PM on November 17, 2005

An answer to an implied question: get an MBA from a good school and be in either the finance or sales divisions.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:41 PM on November 17, 2005

EB: I plan to begin an MBA program in the fall of '07. In the meantime, my cardiologist has said I have three or four more months of recovery before going back to work. That's why I'd like to read something more technical than "An Idiot's Guide to Leadership".
posted by mischief at 6:57 PM on November 17, 2005

I think you would take away far more from reading about how others have dealt with situations, than reading how you should deal with situations. With that said, here are some of my suggestions:

Gates, by Paul Andrews
Iacocca, by Lee Iacocca
Winning, by Jack Welch
American Soldier, by Tommy Franks
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis
The Gatekeepers, by Jacques Steinberg.
What Should I Do With My Life, by Po Bronson

Some of these are non-standard recommendations, but I think you can take away some valuable points from them. Such as...

Moneyball: Yeah, it's a book about baseball. But it's also a book about the need to overcome the pull of gravity in organizations that are too focused on tradition, and not enough on measurable performance.

American Soldier: It's Tommy Franks' autobiography, but it talks a great deal about helping to develop soldiers, and about the need to constantly innovate. Franks rose to the top of the military, but I have little doubt that he would have done the same in business. It's a similar mindset.

The Gatekeepers: It's a book about admissions processes at elite colleges, but there's something to be said about thinking of it in a business setting. These admissions officers spend every day asking one simple question: How do I select the best from the best? Get used to this question. If you're in management, and you're in a pyramid organization where there are fewer and fewer jobs as you move upwards, this is going to be an issue you're dealing with constantly.

Lastly, What Should I Do With My Life. I don't recommend it because I think you should reconsider your decision, but because you need to recognize that there are people who will be working under you who need to, or have, or should reconsider their career decisions. Happy employees are productive employees. And employees who aren't happy, are poor performers, and drag others down with them. Far too often, it's simply because they haven't asked themselves the question that Bronson asked of the people in the book. Being a manager sometimes means helping people ask themselves this question, even if it might lead to the people leaving the company.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:29 PM on November 17, 2005

I have read many of the biographies you list, NMRN, and I am quite comfortable with my leadership and people skills. I am looking for something that deals with the flip side of management.
posted by mischief at 7:40 PM on November 17, 2005

You might want to take a look at Good to Great. It's well worth the read anway, but the sections on Level 5 leadership might be particularly useful to you. I haven't read Iacocca's bigoraphy, but they savage him in Good to Great for becoming a celebrity CEO and essentially undoing all the great work of his miracle turnaround. One of the absolute best business books I've ever read.
posted by zanni at 10:17 PM on November 17, 2005

Some offbeat recommendations:

1. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, by Twyla Tharp. The autobiography of a dancer and her career, it is considered one of the best works available about the practice of discipline, the flexible mind, and the healthy perspective necessary to generate creative ideas on a regular basis.

2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Thoughts on becoming a whole person as one ages. Brain work through physical work. Integrating the rigor of youth with the slower, steadier drive of the mindful adult.

3. The Art of War, by Sun Tzu; the Prince, by Machiavelli. Executives go starry-eyed over these philosophical treatises about ethics and etiquette during the conduct of war or manipulation.

4. Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Woe is I, by Patricia T. O'Conner. Your communications skills, particularly written, should be unquestionable, confident, flawless, flexible, and allow room for wit and humor.

5. Any book by Miss Manners. Not only is the advice useful, the writing is some of the best in print on any topic. She is a joy to read, and she is the best authority available on diplomacy and comportment.

6. Blindness, by Jose Saramago. This Nobel winner's most popular book in English is an eerie look at a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by every turn by people who are suddenly disabled and must develop new quick-thinking skills in order to land on their feet and survive with the new rules.

7. Clement Mok's design books. Good explorations of developing systematic thought matrices.

8. Six Thinking Hats, by Edward de Bono. Brain games for people interested in retuning their heads for advantage in the workplace.

9. Games Magazine. Doing their word puzzles will improve your memory, increase the size of your vocabulary, give you opportunities for fun, and help you learn how to brainstorm and how to read and write better. Crossword puzzles are shown by neurologists and psychologists alike to improve memory as one ages.
posted by tarintowers at 12:56 AM on November 18, 2005

It's insanely expensive, and sometimes full of shit, but the Harvard Business Review will give you a lot of insight into what upper management is worrying about, what kinds of decisions they have to make, what trends the consultants are peddling this year, and how they push all of that down to middle management. The case studies are always useful reading.
posted by fuzz at 4:39 AM on November 18, 2005

Harvard Business Review can sometimes be stolen from planes. Just sayin'.
posted by Goofyy at 5:00 AM on November 18, 2005

Thanks, fuzz (and goofyy too).
posted by mischief at 9:44 AM on November 18, 2005

Mischief:

In my estimation, a key part of the career path to the executive is learning (and doing) the task of management at several lower levels. For that, I would recommend several of Peter Drucker's books:

1. Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1974)
2. The Practice of Management (1954)
3. The Effective Executive (1966)
4. Managing for Results (1964)

If you don't want to get these individually, a few years ago his publisher put out a compendium containing excerpts from these (and other books):

5. The Essential Drucker (2001)

It's true that these books are dated (with several being nearly half a century old.) But their value has not diminished anywhere near the level of today's more popular "business bestseller" titles.

It was a sad day last week when Mr. Drucker passed on. He was one of the modern giants in our understanding of the art and practice of management.
posted by dott8080 at 7:45 PM on November 20, 2005