When They Win, You Win: Being a Great Manager Is Simpler Than You Think

by Russ Laraway

Overview

From the legendary Silicon Valley manager who inspired Radical Candor, the three simple rules for creating happy, engaged teams.

Businesses everywhere are plagued by managers who seem to think that keeping their staff miserable is the best way to deliver profits. This is a failure of leadership that also hurts the bottom line; research has shown that maintaining a happy, engaged workforce consistently drives measurably better business results across the board.

In When They Win, You Win, Russ Laraway, the Chief People Officer of Goodwater Capital, provides a simple, coherent, and complete leadership standard that teaches organizational planners and managers how to develop incredible levels of employee engagement. The book identifies three key elements: clear direction-setting, frequent coaching, and active engagement with employees on their long-term career goals.

Russ Laraway's approach to management, developed at Google, Twitter, Qualtrics, and Goodwater, shows the way to cultivate a happy, productive, and engaged team. Happy results are sure to follow—for you, your customers, your shareholders, and your employees alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250279668
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/07/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	297,932
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

RUSS LARAWAY has had a diverse 28 year operational management career. Before starting his first company, Pathfinders, he was a Company Commander in the Marine Corps. A graduate of The Wharton School, he worked at Google and Twitter before co-founding Candor, Inc., alongside bestselling author Kim Scott. In 2018, Laraway became the Chief People Officer of Qualtrics and ultimately took on a role helping other companies think (very) differently about the employee experience. In 2022, Russ became the Chief People Officer for Goodwater Capital. Over that span, he has managed 700 person teams and $700M businesses facing a vast array of leadership challenges along the way.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I The Argument for the Big 3

1 Restoring Dignity to the Office of the Manager 27

2 Big 3→Engagement←Results (3→E←R) 41

3 The Big 3 Primer 48

Part II Direction

4 Create the Map: Purpose 67

5 Determine the Destination: Vision 75

6 Plan the Route: OKRs-Objectives and Key Results 82

7 Navigate to the Destination: Ruthless Prioritization 88

Part III Coaching

8 Improve 99

9 Continue 111

10 Coaching the Boss 118

11 Showing That You Care About People as Human Beings 134

12 Coaching Mechanics 141

Part IV Career

13 The Problems with Career Conversations Today 169

14 Conversation 1: Life Story and the Things That Make People Tick 187

15 Conversation 2: Using Dreams to Get to Vision Statements 220

16 Conversation 3: Career Action Plan 238

Part V Putting It into Practice

17 Managers 259

18 Planners: People Teams, Learning Teams, Leadership Development Teams 262

Epilogue 274

The Definitive Leadership Library 279

Acknowledgments 283

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2022

“Managers everywhere are systematically failing,” according to this cursory debut from Laraway, the chief people officer at Qualtrics, a management company. Citing studies that report “global employee engagement to be 15 percent, which is shockingly low,” Matthews encourages managers to keep team members motivated by applying his “big 3” approach: direction, coaching, and career guidance. This means ensuring “every member of their team understands exactly what is expected and when it is expected,” and coaching employees on both their short and long-term goals. Laraway makes a fine case for fairly standard business ideas, such as nailing down a “vision” and “purpose” to keep teams productive and on track, and dishes out a number of chatty stories about employee engagement turnaround at companies where he has worked. But he offers little beyond simplistic directives to solidify one’s mission, to care about employees as human beings, and to avoid bragging about overwork. While the presentation is peppy—“my dream is that readers of this book will join me in my quest to rid the world of assclown managers everywhere”—there’s not much new. The tone is a nice change from the status quo, but many managers will find most of this all too familiar. (June)

Publishers Weekly

So much of what I describe in Radical Candor I learned from Russ Laraway. He taught me that leadership is not an innate talent but a skill that can and must be learned. In a labor of love, Russ has poured everything he knows into these pages. He offers a coherent management philosophy backed up by research. Whether you are pondering career options, are currently a boss, or are working in HR trying to deliver a great employee experience, this is a book for you!” —Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor

“I've seen so many excellent managers in my career and was lucky to have observed Russ Laraway up close during our time at Twitter, and he's one of the best. This book unlocks a simplified, coherent management approach that reliably delivers engaged results...you really need to read it.” —Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter

“If anyone can help smart leaders develop the humility and self-awareness needed to learn, it's Russ Laraway. He delivers great insights with candor, wit, and humility. Laraway is someone to listen to and learn from—and he makes it easy to do both.” —Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers

From the Publisher