Lessons from Your Management Sucks by Mark Stevens

YOUR MANAGEMENT SUCKS is a book by Mark Stevens about waging war on yourself and your business unit to become exceptional in your personal life and business.

“At one time or another, we all fail to perform as well as we can. And once we raise the bar, our world changes, and we have to drive to new heights again. The most important point is to understand and accept this need for continuous improvement.”

The author helps the reader to recognize that life is a compendium of hills and valleys and in-betweens.

He goes further to say that what is important is recognizing where you are–second best or lower–acknowledging it for what it is, and taking definitive steps to become the best and nothing less.

In the book, he shares seven steps to get yourself out of the conundrum that is called “second best”. He calls it the seven-point declaration of war on management that sucks. Here are the steps:

1. Table of Contents

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   Unleash the Power of a Personal Philosophy.

Here, Mark Stevens shared his personal philosophy. He shared a quote from Wall Street, “When a man stares into the abyss, he discovers what he is really made of,” sharing that valleys or moments of mediocrity are growth opportunities. He also shared a personal experience of when he noticed lapses in his business. He could have left things as they were (if it’s broken, don’t fix it), but he decided that if building from scratch was what he needed to come best, and not second best, he was going to do it.

He believes that “any enterprise that is equal to the sum of its parts will fail. Only when the components of people, finance, structure, process, morale, strategy, and execution are aligned, so that each reinforces the other to create synergy will the organization achieve great things. Because it will be greater than the sum of its parts.”

2. Challenge the Oxymoron of Conventional Wisdom.

“Simply because a fact has been passed along as the truth for centuries doesn’t mean it’s true. It is instead, conventional wisdom, and that may be the furthest thing from the truth.”

As a leader and manager of your life, time, resources, department, or business, you mustn’t always go with what is widely accepted. In fact, seeking opinions in town hall meetings before taking decisions can lead to neglect of truly innovative ideas and as a result, becoming obsolete in the marketplace.

3. Take a Good Look in the Mirror…Do You See a Leader?

If you don’t see a leader when you look at your reflection in the mirror, then it’s likely you have been copying someone else’s brand and persona and trying to make it like them. Copying someone else is followership. Try leadership instead. Be you, understand your strengths and weakness, let go of fear, and use your strengths, skills, and abilities to your advantage.

4. Develop Your Personal Killer App.

“Killer app is the stuff the warriors I have worked with have honed to a science. It is their differentiator… It is why they win. It is how you can win.” The killer app is made of four traits: monster ambition, cartoon imagination, combat eyes, and serial scepticism.

5. Unleash Your Manhattan Project.

Implement the plan that will change your world and your life.

“Unleashing your Manhattan Project means tapping into the collective intelligence of your organization to identify the critical challenges that you must address, and then marshalling the necessary resources to solve them with speed and efficiency.”

6. Capture Ideas With a Butterfly Net.

Seek out what you need to know and use it for personal growth.

“Capturing ideas requires an open and curious mind, a willingness to experiment and try new things, and the ability to see beyond the obvious to the potential that lies within.”

7. Apply C+A+M, the Universal Equation for Perpetual Growth.

“C” for “Current”: Understanding where you are today.

“A” for “Advantage”: Identifying your competitive advantage.

“M” for “Momentum”: Maintaining your momentum by constantly seeking new opportunities and challenging assumptions.

By applying the C+A+M equation, businesses can win customers and make them deliriously happy, hence achieving growth that never recedes and staying ahead of their competition.