Product Description

Most managers know that revitalization in their companies must occur from the ground up. But how to get that message to employees without applying the kind of pressure that makes them even less productive? The answer is empowerment. In this motivating book, you will find specific strategies designed to help you encourage responsibility, acknowledgment, and creativity so that employees feel they "own" their jobs. It's all here, in an accessible guide for the successful managers of tomorrow.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53103 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-11
• Released on: 1997-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780449002827
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Inside Flap
Most managers know that revitalization in their companies must occur from the ground up. But how to get that message to employees without applying the kind of pressure that makes them even less productive? The answer is empowerment. In this motivating book, you will find specific strategies designed to help you encourage responsibility, acknowledgment, and creativity so that employees feel they "own" their jobs. It's all here, in an accessible guide for the successful managers of tomorrow.

About the Author
Dr William C. Byham is President and founder of Development Dimensions International (DDI), a world-leader in human resource training and development. An internationally-known educator, consultant and trainer, Dr Byham has authored more than 100 articles, papers and books.

Customer Reviews

Communicate Better!
Many people fail to focus on whether or not their message is received. More effective people focus on whether the message is received as they attempt to improve communications so their company can be more successful. ZAPP! also focuses on WHAT message is received. As the book shows, a perceived message can be dispiriting or empowering.

I liked the fact that the book spent as much time on explaining about bad communications as it did on good ones. That is a great way to help people improve.

The only thing I did not like about the book was that the end led into a sales pitch for consulting rather than tips for how to pursue this on your own. It seemed out of keeping in a book about empowerment. Skip the last 2 pages, and you will be left with a better taste in your mouth.

Buy, read, think about, apply, and share this book and the lessons above with your colleagues. That will help you get heart-warming results to go with the heart-warming feeling that reading this book provides. Enjoy!

The most fun required reading I ever did.
For our leadership class at college, this was one of the books we had to read, along with "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People." I remarked, upon receiving it, that it was quite a thin book. But it demonstrates such an economy of information that it is certainly the equal of books many times thicker.

This book illustrates good management practices with a wonderful story that I think may be as great a benefit for educators and authors as it is to managers. It employs an educational principle that I had only seen before in foreign language teaching: that wild, vibrant, creative imagery can make things easier to remember. And the more ridiculous, the more memorable. Also, it illustrates the importance of metaphors. Indeed, the Ralphalator described in the book is, in fact, a metaphor generator for interpersonal relationships. These metaphors put the reader on the same track of discovery as the characters, who find themselves with a wonderful new way to explore their options and examine the results. I'd even go as far as to say that this book could be used in high schools to explain what metaphors are, and what makes them such a strong literary element.

With that in mind, I'd really really really like to see the Ralphalator used to examine the world of dating. The third dimension is almost certainly inadequate to explain such a concept.

An excellent tool for leveling up the people who work for you
Zapp! is a book that my company uses in the management training seminars we give to employees who are taking on management responsibilities for the first time. Lessons on empowerment are told through a fictional (even science fictional) story of managers at a large company coming to understand why their organization is so disfunctional. The story, although initially pretty hokey, serves nicely as a landscape upon which to illustrate extremes of highly successful and highly unsuccessful management techniques. The people on my team who have read it have learned quite a lot and are applying the learnings regularly. It is not at all uncomon for one of them to raise a concern over some a counter-productive management incident by describing the "Sapp!" that occured. And it is rewarding to hear one of them respond to a positive and empowering interaction by smiling and simply saying "Zapp!"

I highly recommend this book for people managers and leaders who want to build a healthy business organization based upon ownership and leadership.