> You're on.  Please send information about how to get the book
> and a copy of the article.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Allan Yamakawa
 
Allan,
 
Here is the article encased in some info on the book. I would be
happy to answer any questions you may have.
Joan
 
"HOW TO UNLEASH THE POWER OF PEOPLE" by Bennet Simonton
 
This book  provides the specific actions and the supporting reasons
required to manage people in a superlative manner. It is a book for
executives, managers, supervisors and people who aspire to one of
these positions or who teach management. This book will literally
save you years of trials and errors as well as much anxiety. It will
give any boss a sense of confidence never thought possible and use of
its methods will result in great personal satisfaction for yourself
and your juniors.
 
You probably know that the best people in any company are
self-directed, self-motivated self-starters. These people always seem
to be on top of their job and confident of the outcome. They take
charge and seem to know where they are going and how they are
going to get there.
 
What you might not know is that every person has the capability to
become a self-directed and self-motivated team player who loves
coming to work. In fact, this is their natural state and in it they
are at least 300% more productive than if unmotivated. Besides,
everyone wants to be a superstar and all they need is a sincere
helping hand from their boss.
 
In addition, you might not know that any boss, and I mean ANY, can
learn how to unleash this capability in every junior. The methods and
techniques are easy-to-learn, easy-to-execute and easy-to-understand
because they are right in line with your own common sense, what some
readers have called "second nature". Better yet, they don't depend in
any way on your beliefs, personality, sex, race or position.
 
Below is a short article which is based on the book and will give
you confidence that the book will be valuable to you.
 
LEADERSHIP IS A SCIENCE, NOT AN ART
 
Leadership has been shrouded in mystery for too long. Many have
considered it an art reserved for Presidents, Generals and other high
ranking officials. This article demystifies leadership by giving it
the substance of rules, methods and reasons which convert it from an
art into a science. This knowledge is crucial for people in positions
of authority (every parent, teacher, administrator, officer, manager,
executive, and supervisor) because leadership is their most important
 
function, what they do every minute of every day whether they know
it or not.
 
Leadership is easy to understand from the vantage point of following.
So what is it that followers follow? The answer is that they follow
the values, good or bad, reflected in what's going on around them.
To understand this, let's examine values and how they are used, by
followers and others.
 
All people believe that certain values are good and that their
opposites are bad. Fortunately, we all agree on which are which. For
example, we all think that love is good and hate is bad. The same is
true for high quality and low quality, honesty and dishonesty,
humility and arrogance, enthusiasm and being negative, cooperative
and uncooperative, fair and unfair, hard work and hardly working and
on and on for all good values and their opposites.
 
If we all agree on which values are good and which are bad, what
differentiates us? It is that we have different standards for each
good value. If I have experienced little love, I will have a low
standard for love while you who have experienced much love will have
a high standard. Our standards come from what we have experienced
and this is true for each value.
 
How do we apply our standards in everyday life? We evaluate
everything we experience against our standards. If the event or
object reflects a higher standard than ours, we respect it. If lower,
we disrespect it and if equal to ours we think "so what?". We want
to accept what we respect and reject what we disrespect. We use this
process to make all of our decisions and choices; from where to live
to what to buy, from where to work to what to wear and from who to
respect to who to disrespect. As such, we are self-directed and self-
motivated, our most productive, creative and natural state.
 
Unfortunately, this extremely effective state has undergone a major
alteration for most of us. During our formative years, we are all
subjected to demands placed on us by those in authority. Our parents,
peers, teachers, churches, media, government and finally bosses
demand that we do what they want us to do, what they expect of us.
They most often do not allow us the freedom to choose on our own what
we do. The effect has been to cause over 90% of us to give in and
more or less conform to what we see going on around us rather than
what would really satisfy our own value standards. In essence, we
change from being internally directed people into followers who rely
on external direction.
 
Followers don't just act as their authorities demand, but from what
they see being done around them they develop a second set of value
standards. They set aside their own set of standards, using them only
to judge what others do, and use this second set more or less to
control their own actions. They do this, without knowing it, so as to
conform and thus reduce criticism. In this set, the standard for
fairness may be one for unfairness because most of what they see
around them appears to be unfair. The same could be true for honesty
or compassion. Using standards for bad rather than good values causes
a follower to act dishonestly or unfairly or lazily even though he or
she knows that each one is the wrong thing to do. The point is that
followers will follow bad standards or bad values just as easily as
good ones. Equipped with this understanding of following, we can now
return to the issue of leading, the other side of the coin from
following.
 
Leadership is, therefore, simply the act of communicating value
standards to followers through actions. Whatever the communicated
standards, high or low or even in the bad direction, followers will
use these in their work. Thus, any company or group becomes whatever
those in authority cause employees to experience. For example, if
bosses reflect and require high levels of knowledge, juniors will
perform work knowledgeably. If bosses treat juniors unfairly, juniors
use this standard in treating each other and customers. If bosses
show great care for their juniors, juniors will show the same amount
of care for each other, the work and customers. Thus, people in
authority are "suppliers of standards" to followers, whether or not
they mean to do so, because implied values are what followers search
for in order to follow or conform.
 
Bosses often complain that their people are doing things which they
should not do. Although correct, this judgment is not relevant
because the people are merely following the boss' leads. Bosses must
apply themselves to examining everything which employees experience
and changing those until they reflect high standards. When bosses
provide a poor tool, it not only makes work harder to perform, but
also reflects a low standard of quality which followers then use as
their standard for performing their work. Mistreatment of one person
not only makes everyone think "there but for the grace of God go I",
but also communicates that mistreatment of the work, the customers,
the tools and anything else is OK no matter what the boss says. How
industrious, cooperative, clean, safe, compassionate, compliant to
rules, creative, enthusiastic etc. followers will be when working
comes directly from the standards which bosses allow juniors to
experience, whether or not the boss actually caused the experience.
"Do as I say not as I do" never works.
 
Unfortunately, bosses can't easily recognize when they communicate a
low standard or even a standard in the bad direction, for example
toward arrogance rather than humility or toward unfairness rather
than fairness. It isn't their fault since their behavior and their
standards came from experiences during development and if they
experienced low standards, they can't possibly know what a high one
looks like or sounds like. However, these bosses will still suffer
the negative consequences.
 
The solution to this problem is simple. Go out to your people and ask
them what they don't like, what upsets them, what doesn't support
them well enough or what reduces the quality of their work. Since
each person has high standards for different values, each will object
about different issues although everyone will want to object to any
standard reflecting bad values. Each objection will be an opportunity
for you to improve what's going on in the workplace, actually an
opportunity for you to improve your leadership. Work on these and get
subordinate bosses to do likewise. If you are careful, most of these
will result in a higher standard for the issue in question and thus
will communicate a higher standard to your people. There is no other
effective way to improve your standards of leadership, the same
standards your people will use in doing their work. The more you fix,
the more suggestions and comments you will receive, a sort of never
ending process of continuous improvement.
 
The subsequent improvement in productivity and morale will astound
you. When you listen to people and fix what they consider to be
problems, they know that you really care about them (caring is
another good value) whether you really do or not. This leadership
causes them to care more about the work, each other and the customer.
There is much more to this, but you now have the basic strategy.
 
Leadership can also eliminate the three deficiencies inherent to
following: wasting a lot of time watching what's going on in order to
detect what's expected of them thereby losing up to 60% of their
productivity and creativity, losing much of their creativity by
waiting for the next order and following bad as well as good leads.
These three can be corrected by leading followers back to their
natural state of being self-directed and self-motivated, the way
they must be to succeed in private life. Once they get there, they
will never return to being followers again and thus become a positive
force which will sustain any company for years.
 
Please accept that leadership is a science in which the actions to
communicate high rather than low or bad standards for every value can
be known ahead of time and executed much as one would perform any
set of tasks.
Copyright 1996 by Bennet Simonton
 
THE BOOK comprehensively provides you with specific actions which
cover every aspect of a boss' interactions with subordinates, from
what to tell them about dealing with bosses or unions to how to
detect and correct anything people experience which leads them toward
low rather than high standards.
 
NOW FOR A BRIEF Description of the book
 
Discusses the current state of distrust and disrespect and their
major causes. Defines the characteristics of a superlative employee
and adopts them as the book's goal. Discusses three characteristics
of people relevant to managing; identical Values, 90% caused to be
Followers and an ability to Choose our actions and reactions.
Discusses why these three characteristics result in a workforce which
"follows" the boss' "leads" in Values, good or bad, regardless of the
boss' intent (how industrious, safe, neat, cooperative, enthusiastic,
knowledgeable, etc. to be when working).
 
Gives a clear description of high and low standards for each of 23
Values, their effects on the workplace and why your "leads" toward
low standards result in significant negative effects. Describes
specific actions by which to "lead" toward high standards and how to
avoid bad leadership in management support functions such as tools,
discipline, orders, training, union relations, change, peace of mind,
correcting negative attitudes and many others. Clearly defines your
most important skill of listening, its effects on commitment and
"how" to effectively listen, step-by-step.
 
Discusses the goals and specific actions required to successfully
interact with people, one-on-one and in 40 person group meetings.
Presents one-on-one as your most important mechanism for detecting
and correcting leadership errors. Presents group meetings as your
major mechanism for successful culture change and causing Followers
to become self-directed self-starters, mainly because group meetings
are 5 times more credible than one-on-one interactions. Provides the
details of how to conduct group meetings and follow-up with
corrective action.
 
A few of many specifics.
-  Why You Have No Choice Over How to Manage People.
-  Why Giving Orders may be Your Weakest, Most Destructive Action
    and How not to Create Robots.
-  Eleven Most Valuable Orders You Can't Live Without.
-  Why Bosses Cannot Motivate, but can Release People to Their Own
    Motivations.
-  How to Prevent Shooting the Messenger.
-  How to Convert Coaching from Confrontation to Caring.
-  How to Put a Stop to the Bad Effects of Bureaucracy.
-  Why People Turn Off their Brain When Not Given a Chance to Add
    Their Two Cents.
-  How to Create a Self-Sustaining Value-Based Culture.
-  Why and How to be a Brake not an Accelerator for Needed Changes.
-  Why the Chain of Command is the Natural Enemy of Peace of Mind.
-  How to Equip People to Handle Workplace Conditions such as Bosses,
    Unions, Peers, Customers, Change, Stress, Negative Attitude et al
-  The Connection Between Employee Commitment, Ownership & Influence
    and a Listening, Responsive Boss.
-  Six Rationales for Changing Personal Performance and Why They
    Appeal to Juniors.
-  Why a Boss is a Supplier to Subordinates, the Boss's Customers.
-  How to Make People Totally Responsible.
-  Why Admission of Error is a Solution.
-  How to Protect the Rights of Subordinates.
-  How to be Your Own Best Friend.
 
You will be amazed at how uncomplicated managing people really is.
Common sense "whys" make every action fit in perfect harmony with
your natural feelings (one manager called them "self-evident"). This
book gives you the opportunity to become a super achiever, supremely
confident in your abilities and far more valuable to your company.
No aspect of workplace interaction will be beyond your capabilities.
 
You may want to know the author's source of knowledge. From college
onward, the focus of his life has been "getting things done through
people". He was a boss for over 30 years and in his search for better
ways to manage people he studied history, religions, psychology,
sociology and every management book he could find. His "hows and
whys" were developed day by day through trial and error in the
trenches. He made every possible error and little by little changed
his fixes from bad to good to better to excellent.
 
His biggest challenge was to make his solutions work for subordinate
bosses and also give them common sense reasons why this action is
better than another one. He was literally forced to create a full set
of specific tools which could be taught to junior bosses because he
could not find them in any management book.
 
By the way, 300% productivity gains weren't even in his dreams. But
as he and his people made and corrected their errors, 300% gains
became a reality. He proved them in 4 different jobs, the last as the
executive of a 900 person, unionized group which overhauled
powerhouse boilers, turbines and other machinery. Everyone said it
could not be done and could only stare in disbelief when they
succeeded.
 
Productivity Gains?  The difference between poorly motivated people
and highly motivated people is at least 300 %. Uncommitted people
function below 25% of their potential. Having proved that at least
300% is achievable, the author is willing to promise this gain from
reasonably poor conditions. Please note that best selling author Dr.
Stephen Covey believes the gain can be as high as 500%.
 
Your Competition?  Please accept that you will need every bit of
brainpower and creativity your people can muster in our increasingly
competitive environment. As boss, you choose whether their brainpower
will be used as a multiplier to productivity and innovation or to
complain and follow bad "leads" or somewhere in between. Most bosses
make the wrong choice without knowing they are doing so. This book
will show you "how" to choose to apply juniors' brainpower to their
work, to choose commitment and creativity through self-motivation and
self-direction. Unleashing the brainpower of your people from the
bondage of following creates many, many more solutions than you alone
can generate.
 
ORDER "How To Unleash The Power Of People" with a credit card by
calling (24 hours 7 days a week) 1-800-257-7397 (from outside the
USA 941-498-4001) and pay $29.95 plus $5 s/h (more depending on
country outside the USA) (for Florida residents include a 6% sales
tax), by MC, Visa or Amex. Or reply by email. Make sure to give
your snail mail address, your card # and its expiration date. Or you
can send a fax to Simonton Associates at 1-941-591-0683 with the
same info. If you desire to pay by check or company purchase
order, write to Simonton Associates, 8111 Bay Colony Drive #203,
Naples, Fl 33963.
 
UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE. If the book doesn't suit you for any
reason, send it back within 12 months for a prompt and courteous
refund (does not apply to orders of more than one book).
 
FOR HELP at your company for problem assessment, advice, coaching or
outright training, call (941) 594-1143.
 
Here's to Managing People! It's A Great Experience!