Real Influencing
How to Win Hearts & Minds to Achieve Goals

By J.K. Smart
Pearson Education / Financial Times
December 2003
ISBN: 0-273-66329-1
175 Pages, Illustrated, 5 ½" x 8 ½"
$34.95 paper original


Real Influencing is for every manager who knows that if it was as easy as most books and trainers make out, they’d be doing it already. Overworked managers know that management is about doing the best you can with what you’ve got, in the real world of organisations that are demanding more and more, for less and less. Managers who know that doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity and know there is a better way of managing. But the books you’ve read all seem to have been written by people who don’t know what it’s like in the real world of work, people who are mistaking you for a superhero instead of a real manager. You know you could work out a better way of doing things but the trouble with being an overworked manager is that you just can’t seem to get off the treadmill long enough to find the time.

But what if someone else had done it for you – read all the management books, tried out all the ideas, worked out why they didn’t work in the real world, developed an approach that works and put it all in one practical accessible source. And what if that someone wasn’t a management guru, academic or consultant but an overworked manager like you who knew what you were up against and who didn’t preach at you about the one right way to do things or try to get you to be something you’re not. This book offers you a way of blending the author's thinking framework with your experience and helps you to be the best you can at influencing.

Author Karen Smart’s background is in individual and organisational development. However, unlike some in her field, first and foremost Karen sees herself as a line manager. In recent years, she’s worked primarily on enabling managers to manage – developing and delivering everything from individual skill building and management development programmes to management systems design and organisation wide culture change. In addition to managing her team, Karen has coached senior managers and facilitated cross-functional working, problem solving and conflict management. Although she has two degrees and has researched extensively across a range of disciplines, ultimately Karen feels she’s learned most about management from her experience as an overworked and undervalued manager, disempowered by bureaucracy. From this experience - and inspired by the man she says "puts the J into KJ Smart and a lot of the smart too" - the philosophy of real management for real people was born.

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