I work for a media company that produces video content for the international market. He joined the company more than three years ago as a creative screenwriter. Offices are located in several countries. A year and a half ago, I was appointed head of the youngest branch. It’s time to study.

The company has a knowledge base and a mini-library. I want to share a few findings that have helped me shape my views and management style.

1. Deploy your ship. David Marche

This is exactly the book with which a young manager should start, according to our company.

The author of the book, a submarine captain who changed the archaic and maximally vertical army management system within his command. (and who will forbid him, because he is on a submarine). As a result, the crew of underdogs turned into winners.

What was useful. For most of my working life I have worked in archaic management systems where there is coordination of every step, bureaucracy and fear of making a mistake.

Once I got to another system, I started to get a lot of satisfaction from my work as an employee. And through the prism of this book, I looked at how leaders who create similar conditions think. Plus, the book is very easily written, I advise you to read it.

2. From good to great. Jim Collins

The author of the book has a descriptive theory, he divides managers into 5 levels. Level 5 managers are managers of really big companies, or managed them in their peak period of development.

What was useful. As a rule, odious managers or heads of global brands become widely known. It also describes managers who are not widely known, but whose management style and outlook have allowed their companies to become market leaders.

At the same time, I watched a series about the heads of Uber and WeWork. Works very well in contrast with the book. If you also watched it, you will understand what I said.

3. Scrum: A revolutionary project management method. Jeff Sutherland

Short. Simple and clear introductory material about what SCRUM is and how it works.

What was useful. More details here. I work in a media company whose managers decided to implement SCRUM and Agile. This process took place in different offices with varying degrees of success.
The first reason is that SCRUM is not ideal for our processes, it needs to be strongly adapted:
A. Our sprints are much shorter (1-2 weeks),
B. 80% of the company are film crews, operators, lighting operators, directors, decorators. People who are used to working with completely different methods.
C. Again, 80% of employees do not work in the office, but drive around the sites. Which is also not very convenient.

Not all SСRUM masters coped with such a task. The SCRUM that came to us was doing very poorly. (In our region, a not very experienced specialist was available at that time). We had to part ways and postpone the transition to new rails.
And I decided to figure out on my own what SCRUM is at a basic level. And this book was enough for me. And already, when a more experienced specialist came to us, I could speak with him in the same language.

Bonus: Don’t work with bad people. Robert Sutton

A book that you can take on a short vacation. It is always useful to remind yourself of who it is better not to work with. How it turned out to be useful: I sometimes had a dilemma: there is an employee who performs tasks well, the best. But others hate him. What to do, fire such an employee. So, the book gives a visual example that I found useful.

There is an elite men’s clothing store, there was a very cool salesman, his check was much higher than his colleagues. At the same time, he behaved like a bad person. He took clients to colleagues, was rude and rude to colleagues in his free time. At some point, the management decided to fire him. And you know what happened? Each seller began to sell more, but not much. No one has come close to selling that bad man. But the general cash register of the store increased, the atmosphere in the work team became more comfortable, which led to an increase in sales of the entire team.

Glad if you need anything. And share your recommendations in the comments.

And this is my Telegram channel, where I will talk about my second activity – coaching. Classic, do not teach how to increase your income by X times, etc. https://t.me/+4VoOzVvT8EhlMzBi