Joel Trammell is a serial entrepreneur and lifelong learner about building great organizations. His leadership has led to countless successes over his 30-year career. After decades serving as a CEO himself, Trammell identified a pervasive problem: many of his fellow business leaders lacked necessary fundamental tools to make their companies truly great. This led him to launch a website and author multiple books to provide CEO’s and leaders alike with the tools and support they need. Trammell is the owner of CEO Magazine and a pioneer in the field of CEO education and training.
‘The Manager’s Playbook: Make Exceptional People Management Your Competitive Advantage’ recently hit the bestseller list, what was that like for you on a personal and a professional level?
It’s just great to hear from people who’ve read the book, marked it up, applied the system, and so on. Delivering this material is so important because of the second- and third-order effects it can have. If a manager is good at managing, their employee is going to be a lot happier at work. They’ll also be happier at home, more present with their family and friends, not stressing about their dysfunctional workplace. If we can get these tools to more people through the book, I’m happy.
Many organizations face crises of management and leadership. Can you tell us how this developed and talk a bit about the solutions to this growing issue?
The root of it is often that smart people get promoted to management with no acknowledgment that this is not a promotion but a career change. The organization doesn’t support them in that career change. The managers themselves often don’t realize it is one. So, the new manager makes their way forward through trial and error. Some get great, but most end up leaving a trail of disengaged or disgruntled employees behind them. This happens despite most managers being really good at whatever their previous role was—sales, engineering, etc.—and despite them being nice, well-intentioned people.
The issue is that effective people management is a skill to be learned like any other. If companies prioritize training in that skill, the results are tremendous. That includes employee satisfaction, manager confidence, and of course the bottom line.
If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you say to him and why?
I struggle with this exercise because I don’t think in those terms. The missteps I took were, I think, necessary in getting me on the right path and to where I am now. So, it’s hard for me to think about what I’d tell my younger self to do differently.
When you did the final read-through for ‘The Manager’s Playbook: Make Exceptional People Management Your Competitive Advantage’ what was your favorite part of the book?
More than any specific tool, it’s the early section describing why good management is so important.
I’m sure your fans are dying to know what’s coming next from you. Do you have another book in the works you can tell us about?
The Chief Executive Operating System will be out soon. It’s a distillation of core ideas into a system that CEOs can apply immediately. It’s a very interactive, action-oriented book. Because if you’re just learning theory but it’s not manifesting in your leadership or your business, what’s the point?
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