The Unforced Error
Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated
By: Jeffrey A. Krames
Published: October 15, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
ISBN 9781591842835
Publisher: Penguin/Portfolio
"In professional tennis, the player with the fewest unforced errors usually wins. The same is true in business", writes book editor and best selling author Jeffrey Kremes, in his highly original and practical book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated. The author combines his vast business experience, with an analogy to professional tennis, and creates a highly accessible guide book for managerial success.
Jeffrey Kremes makes a powerful case that unforced errors can destroy an executive's career within an organization. An unforced error, writes the author, can be made in two different ways. One type is an unforced operating error, made in the course of performing the duties required by the job. An unforced non-operating error is one committed through an error of personal or professional judgment that has nothing to do with the job. A non-operating unforced error is due to a lack of character, which according to Jeffrey Krames, is considered inexcusable. On the other hand, many unforced operating errors are made by every executive. The critical point is to not let the error grow to large, or be ignored through arrogance and a lack of humility. Unforced errors, made in the performance of one's duties are not fatal, if they are recognized and corrected before they cause severe organizational damage.
Jeffrey A. Krames (photo left) draws heavily on the management theory of management guru Peter Drucker, as well as legendary CEO Jack Welch. Indeed, Jeffrey Krames has interviewed both men extensively and has written best selling books about both management thinkers. That intensive knowledge of management theory and practice is demonstrated well in this fine book. At the same time, Jeffrey Krames applies his own business world experience to the book's central ideas, that avoiding unnecessary errors, through lack of diligence in identifying potential unforced errors, a failure to distinguish between large and small errors, and not building on already existing management strengths. The author is emphatic that mistakes will be made by every executive, and are critical to innovation and company growth. The key for an executive is to reduce their number through steady job performance, constant improvement, and the ability to admit and fix an error when it happens.
For me, the power of the book is how Jeffrey Krames identifies the analogy of unforced errors in tennis, with the mistakes made by every executive in the world of business. In both cases, every participant makes unforced errors, but the winner makes fewer unforced errors, and avoids them at the most critical moments. The author provides examples of many types of unforced business errors, and through the tennis comparison, demonstrates their vital importance. At the same time, the tennis metaphor provides a framework for building a strategy to recognize unforced error possibilities before they happen, and for resolving them with minimal damage should they occur. Jeffrey Krames shares large amounts of wisdom from the leading thinkers in management, and shows the reader how to apply the theory successfully to the real world of business.
I highly recognize the must read book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated by Jeffrey A. Krames, to anyone in business who is seeking to build and enhance their career performance. The understanding shared by the author, of the prevalence and the danger of not recognizing potential unforced errors in management, equips the reader with the tools to reduce their frequency. At the same time the book provides the wisdom that errors do take place, and that all executives make unforced errors. Jeffrey Krames shows the executive how to correct those unforced errors, and lessen their damage to the organization and to the executive's career.
Read the lively and idea packed book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated by Jeffrey A. Krames, and reduce the number of unforced errors committed in your career. As the author points out, it's not the most talented, best educated, or most skilled executive who makes the least unforced errors. Instead, strong preparation, improved observational and analytical skills, and a healthy does of humility will prevent the worst unforced errors from sabotaging your career. Read this book, and let the other executives make the unforced errors that end they career, while you get promoted in yours.
