I was intrigued to find out more about the ‘six principles for leaders to make management their competitive advantage’, The author defines it as evolutionary innovation as opposed to radical innovation, but certainly something that is needed in our Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world and brands it ‘capabilities’ management which is both people centric and dynamic.

The book starts by positioning the importance and need of better management and then moves into explaining what it means by this, a couple of examples being creating a culture that is ‘virus-free’ ie without interruption or distraction that takes away from innovation and collaboration. Another concept included here is enabling people to work ‘in the flow’ which is where we do our best work effortlessly. However, achieving this requires us to have awareness, focus, trust and be able to focus our attention on what counts. These are just two of the six principles of better management that Michel explains.

The second half of the book becomes more practical and less theoretical which I personally find helpful. It introduces concepts like selecting your operating system, generating your own toolbox (appropriate to the needs of your organisation or culture) and diagnostic mentoring. I didn’t know what this was either and then realised that the author had written an entire book on this! This section of the book provides evidence as to why the recommendations it is making work and indeed provide a competitive advantage.

In summary, for me this book comes over as something between an academic textbook and a practical handbook making it both challenging and accessible. The author is clearly highly qualified in this area with a number of other books that may support and complement the ideas in this one.

Published by LID Publishing

Lucinda Carney, Host HRUprising Podcast. CEO Actus Software and author of ‘How to be a Change Superhero’