101 Ways to Lose a Great Employee: A Manager's Guide to Saying and Doing the Right Thing

So why write a book on how to lose a great employee? During years of witnessing problematic interactions between managers and members of their staffs and dealing with the fallout, Barbara Otis observed how frequently inattention to good management practices resulted in devastating effects on those involved in the exchanges-as well as on those around them. Through both inadvertent and deliberate actions, managers were driving employees away from their jobs, destroying morale, and often changing the entire trajectory of a team or organization in a negative way. Shockingly, many times they had no idea they were doing it.

Even managers who had good intentions were making big mistakes, sometimes because they had let their guards down and acted without thinking through the consequences and other times because they thought that their misguided management styles were somehow going to achieve their desired results.

Because so many people were suffering from these managerial misbehaviors, and because so many organizations were being damaged, Otis wanted to call attention to these issues and the huge negative impact they have on productivity. She wanted to make people aware that even the seemingly smallest oversights-such as never smiling or saying good morning to your employees-can end up having significant ramifications.

Otis reminds us that people are first and foremost human, yet in work environments we tend to focus on the technical aspects of people's skills and abilities. Through her examples she shows us that an important part of corporate culture is how our feelings and behaviors impact everyone around us. Her goal is to both help managers begin to understand the concept of emotional intelligence and how the ripple effect of managerial missteps can affect employees, teams and organizations-and to encourage managers to begin purposefully making better choices during their encounters with colleagues and employees so they experience more positive results, achieve real progress and enjoy greater success in their organizations.

Otis's tongue-in-cheek approach to her subject matter makes for a good read, hits at the heart of how some managers surprisingly think, and jolts us into realizing how some of our own behaviors might be driving good people away from the organizations we're working so hard to help succeed.