TABLE OF CONTENT
PREFACE TO THE NEW 2014 EDITION 10

Right Thinking-Right Management14
The Key to Success 14
The Great Transformation 21 18
How Effective Management Systems Are Built 24
What Right Management Can Accomplish 26
PART I
PROFESSIONALISM29
1. The Ideal Manager-a Wrong Question 31
The Universal Genius-A Stumbling Block 31
The Effective Person 33
No Accordance in Personalities 34
What Counts Is What You Do, Not What You Are Like 35
Misleading Surveys 36
2. False Theories, Errors, and Misconceptions 39
The Pursuit-of-Happiness Approach 39
Leadership and the Great Man Theory 41
Errors and Misconceptions 44
3. Management as a Profession 49
Constitutional Thinking 49
Professionalism Can Be Learnt 51
The Most Important Profession in a Modern Society 53
The Most Important Mass Profession 56
Elements of Effective Management 59
Sound Training Is Possible for Everyone 62
PART II
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 65
Introduction 67
Simple but Not Easy 67
Useful in Difficult Situations 68
Not Inborn-Must Be Learnt 69
Ideals and Compromises 70
What Type as Role Model? 71
1. Focusing on Results 73
A Self-Evident Fact? 73
Misconceptions 75
What If People Cannot Accept This? 77
Pleasure or Result? 78
2. Contribution to the Whole 85
Position or Contribution? 86
Specialist or Generalist? 88
Wholistic Thinking 89
Contribution and Motivation 91
Contribution Instead of Title 92
The Consequence of Organization 93
3. Concentration on a Few Things 96
The Key to Results 96
Rejection Without Reason 98
Application Examples101
4. Utilizing Strengths 107
Fixation on Weaknesses 108
Matching Tasks with Strengths 109
Should Weaknesses Be Ignored? 111
No Personality Reform 113
Why Focus on Weaknesses? 114
Learning from the Greats 115
How Can We Recognize Strengths? 117
Types of Weaknesses 119
Two Sources of Peak Performance 121
5. Trust 123
Creating a Robust Management Situation 124
How Can We Build Trust? 125
6. Positive Thinking 138
Opportunities Instead of Problems 138
From Motivation to Self-Motivation 139
Positive Thinking-Inborn or Acquired? 140
Freeing Oneself of Dependencies 144
Doing One's Best 146
7. Synopsis: Quality of Management148
PART III
TASKS OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 151
Preliminary Remarks 153
1. Providing Objectives 156
No Systems Bureaucracy 157
Personal Annual Objectives 157
The General Direction 158
Basic Rules for Management by Objectives 159
2. Organizing 171
Beware of "Organizitis" 171
There Is No Such Thing as a "Good Organization" 172
The Three Basic Issues of Organizing 174
Symptoms of Bad Organization 175
3. Making Decisions 180
Wrong Opinions and Illusions 180
The Decision-Making Process 188
4. Supervising 202
Supervision Is Indispensable202
Trust as the Foundation 203
How Should We Supervise? 204
Measuring and Judging 211
5. Developing and Promoting People 215
People Instead of Employees 216
Individuals Instead of Abstractions 216
What Is Often Forgotten 224
6. Synopsis: What About all the Other Tasks? 229
PART IV
TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT239
Instruments, Devices, Tools 241
1. Meetings 244
Reduce the Number of Meetings-Preferably to Zero 244
Crucial for Success: Preparation and Follow-Up 246
Chairing Meetings Is Hard Work 249
Types of Meetings 249
Meetings Are Not Social Events 252
Types of Items on the Agenda 253
No Item Without Action 255
Striving for Consensus 255
Are Meeting Minutes Necessary? 256
Meetings Without an Agenda257
The Key: Implementation and Cont
TABLE OF CONTENT

PREFACE TO THE NEW 2014 EDITION 10

Right Thinking-Right Management14

The Key to Success 14

The Great Transformation 21 18

How Effective Management Systems Are Built 24

What Right Management Can Accomplish 26

PART I

PROFESSIONALISM29

1. The Ideal Manager-a Wrong Question 31

The Universal Genius-A Stumbling Block 31

The Effective Person 33

No Accordance in Personalities 34

What Counts Is What You Do, Not What You Are Like 35

Misleading Surveys 36

2. False Theories, Errors, and Misconceptions 39

The Pursuit-of-Happiness Approach 39

Leadership and the Great Man Theory 41

Errors and Misconceptions 44

3. Management as a Profession 49

Constitutional Thinking 49

Professionalism Can Be Learnt 51

The Most Important Profession in a Modern Society 53

The Most Important Mass Profession 56

Elements of Effective Management 59

Sound Training Is Possible for Everyone 62

PART II

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 65

Introduction 67

Simple but Not Easy 67

Useful in Difficult Situations 68

Not Inborn-Must Be Learnt 69

Ideals and Compromises 70

What Type as Role Model? 71

1. Focusing on Results 73

A Self-Evident Fact? 73

Misconceptions 75

What If People Cannot Accept This? 77

Pleasure or Result? 78

2. Contribution to the Whole 85

Position or Contribution? 86

Specialist or Generalist? 88

Wholistic Thinking 89

Contribution and Motivation 91

Contribution Instead of Title 92

The Consequence of Organization 93

3. Concentration on a Few Things 96

The Key to Results 96

Rejection Without Reason 98

Application Examples101

4. Utilizing Strengths 107

Fixation on Weaknesses 108

Matching Tasks with Strengths 109

Should Weaknesses Be Ignored? 111

No Personality Reform 113

Why Focus on Weaknesses? 114

Learning from the Greats 115

How Can We Recognize Strengths? 117

Types of Weaknesses 119

Two Sources of Peak Performance 121

5. Trust 123

Creating a Robust Management Situation 124

How Can We Build Trust? 125

6. Positive Thinking 138

Opportunities Instead of Problems 138

From Motivation to Self-Motivation 139

Positive Thinking-Inborn or Acquired? 140

Freeing Oneself of Dependencies 144

Doing One's Best 146

7. Synopsis: Quality of Management148

PART III

TASKS OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT 151

Preliminary Remarks 153

1. Providing Objectives 156

No Systems Bureaucracy 157

Personal Annual Objectives 157

The General Direction 158

Basic Rules for Management by Objectives 159

2. Organizing 171

Beware of "Organizitis" 171

There Is No Such Thing as a "Good Organization" 172

The Three Basic Issues of Organizing 174

Symptoms of Bad Organization 175

3. Making Decisions 180

Wrong Opinions and Illusions 180

The Decision-Making Process 188

4. Supervising 202

Supervision Is Indispensable202

Trust as the Foundation 203

How Should We Supervise? 204

Measuring and Judging 211

5. Developing and Promoting People 215

People Instead of Employees 216

Individuals Instead of Abstractions 216

What Is Often Forgotten 224

6. Synopsis: What About all the Other Tasks? 229

PART IV

TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT239

Instruments, Devices, Tools 241

1. Meetings 244

Reduce the Number of Meetings-Preferably to Zero 244

Crucial for Success: Preparation and Follow-Up 246

Chairing Meetings Is Hard Work 249

Types of Meetings 249

Meetings Are Not Social Events 252

Types of Items on the Agenda 253

No Item Without Action 255

Striving for Consensus 255

Are Meeting Minutes Necessary? 256

Meetings Without an Agenda257

The Key: Implementation and Continuous Follow-Up 259

2. Reports 260

The Small Step to Effectiveness 261

Clear Language, Logic, and Precision 262

Bad Habits and Impositions 264

3. Job Design and Assignment Control 267

Six Mistakes in Job Design 268
Managing Performing Living is a classic in the field of management. Fredmund Malik reveals everything that all executives and experts in leading positions need to know, anytime and anywhere. He provides readers with the universal principles, tasks and tools of effective management and self-management.

His book ranks among the 100 best business books of all times. The new, completely revised and updated edition is tailored to a new generation of managers, to whom effectiveness is the key to success. It shows the way to turn knowledge, personal strengths, talent, creativity and innovative thinking into results. Managing Performing Living helps readers to cope with the "Great Transformation21", as Malik calls the ongoing centennial change in business and society. It is a book on how to create functioning organizations in a viable society.
PREFACE TO THE NEW 2014 EDITION

Managing Performing Living is one of the most important books I have written. It deals with people's effectiveness in the increasingly complex organization setting of multinational corporations. The book addresses the kind of effectiveness that allows individuals to keep pushing their boundaries. Above all, it demonstrates that it is possible to learn to be effective-and it shows you how.
The book answers the question of what knowledge and what skills people need in order to be successful-both at work and in their private lives, both as managers and as experts in their fields. Managing Performing Living tells you what you need to manage yourself and others, at every organizational level and in every position, and thus to generate the right kind of performance that will enable you to lead a meaningful life. The much deplored work-life imbalance is thus dissolved.
Effectiveness means to do the right things and to do them right. This is the core competency of Right and Good Management: the profession of transforming resources into results and thus creating value.
In today's world, factors such as knowledge, talent, personal strength, creativity, innovation, and intelligence have become even more important than conventional economic parameters; the same goes for emotional energy and commitment, social responsibility, and the courage to think and act in new ways. In themselves, however, these factors - including the economic ones - just are potentials. It takes effective implementation-that is Right and Good Management-to transform these potentials into meaningful results that meet a specific purpose. Also, the "leadership" so often talked about these days depends particularly on effective management: Without it even the best leaders would remain unsuccessful.
So what has changed since Managing Performing Living first appeared in 2000? I have two answers: Almost everything has changed "out there" in business and society, and these changes have been more fundamental than most people could have imagined. Even so, the essence of what constitutes right management has remained unchanged.
It was in response to this fundamental transformation and the resulting management needed that Managing Performing Living was originally written. Back in 1997, I had already described and analyzed the imminent social transformation in my book on corporate governance, in a chapter called "The Great Transformation 21." It is no coincidence that the subtitle I chose for the first edition of this present book was "Effective Management for a New Era."
Even back then, the stage was set for the deflationary debt and financial crisis that was to ensue; the revolution of science and technology (including digitalization) had begun; demographic and ecological change was inevitable, as was political and social instability. It was also plain to see that traditional management and existing organizations were less and less equipped to cope with the rapidly increasing complexity of their environment.
The Great Transformation of the 21st century has been underway ever since that time. It is affecting more and more spheres of life at ever-growing speed, and it is increasingly plain to see that what we are facing is actually more than a new era: A new world is on the rise.

In this new world, almost everything will be different. And yet there is no need to change anything about the theoretical foundations of Managing Performing Living. Effective management is not based on the economic and social sciences taught in conventional management training. Even though these are still needed, much more important are the three sciences of complexity-systems theory, cybernetics, and bionics-that have provided the theoretical foundations for my management theory ever since I embarked on my first research projects. Over the years these three fields of science have gained even more significance than
PREFACE TO THE NEW 2014 EDITION

Managing Performing Living is one of the most important books I have written. It deals with people's effectiveness in the increasingly complex organization setting of multinational corporations. The book addresses the kind of effectiveness that allows individuals to keep pushing their boundaries. Above all, it demonstrates that it is possible to learn to be effective-and it shows you how.

The book answers the question of what knowledge and what skills people need in order to be successful-both at work and in their private lives, both as managers and as experts in their fields. Managing Performing Living tells you what you need to manage yourself and others, at every organizational level and in every position, and thus to generate the right kind of performance that will enable you to lead a meaningful life. The much deplored work-life imbalance is thus dissolved.

Effectiveness means to do the right things and to do them right. This is the core competency of Right and Good Management: the profession of transforming resources into results and thus creating value.

In today's world, factors such as knowledge, talent, personal strength, creativity, innovation, and intelligence have become even more important than conventional economic parameters; the same goes for emotional energy and commitment, social responsibility, and the courage to think and act in new ways. In themselves, however, these factors - including the economic ones - just are potentials. It takes effective implementation-that is Right and Good Management-to transform these potentials into meaningful results that meet a specific purpose. Also, the "leadership" so often talked about these days depends particularly on effective management: Without it even the best leaders would remain unsuccessful.

So what has changed since Managing Performing Living first appeared in 2000? I have two answers: Almost everything has changed "out there" in business and society, and these changes have been more fundamental than most people could have imagined. Even so, the essence of what constitutes right management has remained unchanged.

It was in response to this fundamental transformation and the resulting management needed that Managing Performing Living was originally written. Back in 1997, I had already described and analyzed the imminent social transformation in my book on corporate governance, in a chapter called "The Great Transformation 21." It is no coincidence that the subtitle I chose for the first edition of this present book was "Effective Management for a New Era."

Even back then, the stage was set for the deflationary debt and financial crisis that was to ensue; the revolution of science and technology (including digitalization) had begun; demographic and ecological change was inevitable, as was political and social instability. It was also plain to see that traditional management and existing organizations were less and less equipped to cope with the rapidly increasing complexity of their environment.

The Great Transformation of the 21st century has been underway ever since that time. It is affecting more and more spheres of life at ever-growing speed, and it is increasingly plain to see that what we are facing is actually more than a new era: A new world is on the rise.

In this new world, almost everything will be different. And yet there is no need to change anything about the theoretical foundations of Managing Performing Living. Effective management is not based on the economic and social sciences taught in conventional management training. Even though these are still needed, much more important are the three sciences of complexity-systems theory, cybernetics, and bionics-that have provided the theoretical foundations for my management theory ever since I embarked on my first research projects. Over the years these three fields of science have gained even more significance than
Managing Performing Living is a classic in the field of management. Fredmund Malik reveals everything that all executives and experts in leading positions need to know, anytime and anywhere. He provides readers with the universal principles, tasks and tools of effective management and self-management.
His book ranks among the 100 best business books of all times. The new, completely revised and updated edition is tailored to a new generation of managers, to whom effectiveness is the key to success. It shows the way to turn knowledge, personal strengths, talent, creativity and innovative thinking into results. Managing Performing Living helps readers to cope with the "Great Transformation21", as Malik calls the ongoing centennial change in business and society. It is a book on how to create functioning organizations in a viable society.
Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik is one of Europe's most renowned experts on management, leadership and governance. He is known for his precise way of thinking, sharp analyses, and candid language. For over 40 years, the management scientist, entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning bestsellers has been working on establishing a universal standard for professional management that can be taught and learned.
Malik is the founder and chairman of an institution carrying his name, which is now one of the leading institutions on managing complex systems. Having served as a member, chairman and advisor to several international boards, Malik is an acknowledged connoisseur also of the practice of corporate governance. His numerous distinctions and awards include the Cross of Honor for Science and Art from the Republic of Austria and the Heinz von Foerster Award for Organizational Cybernetics from the German Society of Cybernetics. With a habilitation in Corporate Management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Malik is a Special Professor of Management at the Capital University of Economics and Business (CUEB), Beijing, as well as at the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University (IMAU), Hohhot; he also serves as an honorary professor at Jilin University ( JLU) in Changchun, China. Prof. Malik is married and a father of two, and lives in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik is one of Europe's most renowned experts on management, leadership and governance. He is known for his precise way of thinking, sharp analyses, and candid language. For over 40 years, the management scientist, entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning bestsellers has been working on establishing a universal standard for professional management that can be taught and learned.
Malik is the founder and chairman of an institution carrying his name, which is now one of the leading institutions on managing complex systems. Having served as a member, chairman and advisor to several international boards, Malik is an acknowledged connoisseur also of the practice of corporate governance. His numerous distinctions and awards include the Cross of Honor for Science and Art from the Republic of Austria and the Heinz von Foerster Award for Organizational Cybernetics from the German Society of Cybernetics. With a habilitation in Corporate Management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Malik is a Special Professor of Management at the Capital University of Economics and Business (CUEB), Beijing, as well as at the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University (IMAU), Hohhot; he also serves as an honorary professor at Jilin University ( JLU) in Changchun, China. Prof. Malik is married and a father of two, and lives in St. Gallen, Switzerland.