Corporate Punishment: Smashing the Management Clichés for Leaders in a New World

James Adonis



Think there's no 'I' in team'? There is. Believe that together everyone achieves more? They don't. Asked to give it 110 per cent? You can't. Think employees are your greatest asset? They ain't. Got an open-door policy? For goodness sake — shut it!
Whether you're a perpetrator or a casualty of cringe-worthy corporate clichés (or both), Corporate Punishment will challenge the way you think about the world of business and the mind-numbing management mottos that have underpinned it for decades. From teams and leadership to workplace culture and customer service, James Adonis smashes to pieces some of the most deeply entrenched business philosophies, offering in their place a progressive new thought process that's light on rhetoric and boring theory, but heavy on practicality and imagination.

This book is a protest, a movement, a changing of the management guard — it is the breath of fresh air every modern business needs and a long overdue break from the hot air that most are forced to endure.

Table of Contents

About the author.
Acknowledgements.

Introduction: starting from scratch.

Part I: full team ahead.
1 There's no 'I' in 'team'.
2 Together everyone achieves more.
3 Singing from the same song/hymn sheet .

Part II: strut your staff.
4 Employees are our greatest asset.
5 Management is not a popularity contest.
6 Employees resist change.
7 People don't leave jobs, they leave managers.
8 My way or the highway.

Part III: business as unusual.
9 Work on the business, not in the business.
10 It's nothing personal, just business.
11 Success is a journey, not a destination.
12 The glass ceiling.
13 If you build it, they will come.
14 Pick the low-hanging fruit.
15 Hire slow, fire fast.
16 What gets measured gets done.

Part IV: all work and no say.
17 If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
18 Work smarter, not harder.
19 Let's give it 110 per cent.
20 Work/life balance.
21 Failure is not an option.

Part V: paying flip service.
22 The customer is always right.
23 Under-promise and over-deliver.

Part VI: teach for the stars.
24 Knowledge is power.
25 Every mistake is a learning experience.
26 There's no such thing as a stupid question.

Part VII: hook, line and thinker.
27 Think outside the box.
28 Perception is reality.
29 To assume makes an ass out of U and me.

Part VIII: tickle the money bone.
30 Time is money, money is time.
31 Focus on the bottom line.
32 There's no money in the budget.
33 Do what you love and the money will follow.

Part IX: all's fair in love and work.
34 It's not what you know, it's who you know.
35 Treat people how you'd like to be treated.
36 Coming up with a win-win solution.
37 Having an open-door policy.

Part X: end a helping hand.
38 The hit list.

Index.