It was my first leadership position where I was individually responsible for the success or failure of the organization. There was no one to fall back on. I had studied strategic planning for about a year and a half previously, participating in planning sessions and learning from a great mentor so I was excited about writing my own plan. With that enthusiasm, I approached the boss with my planning proposal. He said he thought it was a great idea; in fact, his boss had been after him to get a plan written. Since I was interested, why didn't I just go ahead and write the plan. We could revise it later and it would get his boss of his back.

One of the problems with being young and enthusiastic is that you get deflated easy, and I was. However, one of the benefits of that youth is resilience. So, I sat down and wrote a mission statement and a couple of goals and gave that to my boss. That pitiful document satisfied his need and he promised we'd look at it more later.

I want to begin by crediting John Maxwell of 360-degree-leadership-fame for the inspiration behind this article. But I also want to acknowledge the input of a number of people who have worked for me over the years who have taught me what I needed to know in order to be successful at my job.

Over the past five years I have taught, mentored and in some cases coached, nearly 2500 middle and entry level managers. Many have lots of complaints about the people for whom they work. They feel that they have tried to initiate things that in their judgment would improve the workplace only to have their bosses quash their ideas. Consequently they have pretty much given up on any suggestion that they could in fact do something that would create a more positive workplace. They assume, the boss "is the way he is and I just have to decide whether or not I can put up with it." And that's the attitude that accompanies them thru each and every workday.

Beginning with publication of The Practice of Management in 1954 by Peter Drucker, there has been an unending stream of works published by many "gurus" of management theory. Some of these works have become famous, their authors even approaching celebrity status, and some are only known to the more serious students of management and leadership theory. Many management books cite the work of other authors and researchers, but there are few places where a short but comprehensive review of the most significant can be found. Stuart Crainer filled that void with The Ultimate Book of Business Gurus. His short essays on 50 influential thinkers (he includes another 60 in an appendix) provide a great overview of management and leadership theory and thought. Read the entire review.

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