The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated Book

A guide to help managers prepare for whatever comes over the net

In tennis, the player with the fewest unforced errors usually wins. The same is true in business- all too often, the mistakes that sabotage a career are completely avoidable, if you can anticipate them early enough.

Bestselling management writer Jeffrey Krames adopts the metaphor of tennis to show how to spot and sidestep the types of faults that do the most damage. He shows how businesspeople can develop and practice good habits so they'll be ready for an unusually fast serve or wicked backhand.

Drawing on stories about famous CEOs like Jack Welch, Robert Goizueta, and Lou Gerstner, Krames shows how to avoid some of the biggest "career killers." His advice includes:

• Never say, "The ball was out by a mile"; face reality at all times.
• Choose your doubles partner carefully; bad people decisions (hiring, firing, promoting) can be fatal.
• Keep practicing your best shot; enhancing your strengths is more effective than trying to fix your weaknesses.

Publishers Weekly

Krames (Inside Drucker's Brain) employs an extended tennis metaphor to explain why some managers succeed and others fail. “In professional tennis, the player with the fewest unforced errors usually wins,” he writes. “The same is true in business.” The unforced error—a mistake that is committed without a cause by a player with the ability to keep the ball in play—is used to describe a variety of career-killing moves (e.g., choosing an unsatisfactory work partner, being ill-prepared). Citing statistics of the growing number of CEOs who have lost their jobs as a result of inadvertent errors, Krames shows how easy it is for even the most talented managers to fall victim to these mistakes. Like a good coach, he guides readers to improve their game with numerous examples from the careers of such business luminaries as Jack Welch and Peter Drucker as well as tennis greats Steffi Graf and John McEnroe. Each chapter also includes a bulleted list of key chapter points for easy skimming. Insightful and with an original presentation, this book will be of great interest to managers and executives hoping to avoid unforeseen and costly pitfalls. (Oct.)