Management, Processes & Infrastructure, Human Resources & Personnel Management 

One of the most difficult problems for managers to address is substandard work, where performance is weak enough to warrant improvement but not so bad as to justify termination. Too often, managers react by developing "workarounds," such as shifting the workload to the high performers. After all, they don't have time to supply corrections in the face of every minor mistake or ineffective work habit, right? Wrong. As CEO Bruce Bodaken and bestselling author Robert Fritz demonstrate, it's precisely by facing reality early that managers can have the most impact. When they ignore small slip-ups, to avoid confrontation or simply save time, managers sow the seeds for far bigger confrontations and overreactions down the line, by which time real change is almost impossible. Bodaken applied these methods to his company, Blue Shield of California, with astounding results, helping it grow from a $3 billion company five years ago to a $7 billion company today. This commonsense yet revolutionary book, which includes a foreword by Peter Senge, author of the mega bestseller THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE (Random House), will enable every manager to set up a fairer and more efficient organization - one in which employees learn to rely on each other and become committed to helping the company succeed, grow and win. - from Amzon