Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Managing Government Employees or Against the Tide

Managing Government Employees: How to Motivate Your People, Deal with Difficult Issues, and Achieve Tangible Results

Author: Stewart Liff

Managing government employees presents unique challenges. Government managers may feel that stringent and convoluted regulations mean they "can't do that." Some others may use that perception as a crutch. But the truth for all of them is, yes, they can "do that" -- and they'd better. "That" means managing employees as proactively and decisively as their corporate counterparts, and holding their staffs, teams, and departments accountable for productivity and results. Managing Government Employees offers dozens of techniques for meeting the challenges and stressful situations supervisors face on a daily basis. Major topics include how to: * get maximum dedication and productivity from employees * improve results of poor performers and discipline or fire them when necessary * deal with union and EEO issues * cut through the red tape of government employment systems For managers frustrated by government bureaucracy, this book lets them know they have more power than they may think.

Author Biography: Stewart Liff (Saugus, CA) began his career with the federal government in 1974. He is a winner of the President's Council on Management Improvement Award and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service. He is the coauthor of Seeing Is Believing.



Books about: Unassisted Childbirth or Anger Therapy

Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President

Author: Lincoln Chafe

AGAINST THE TIDE is a smart, candid and surprising political memoir by Senator Lincoln Chafee -- an original look at the Bush Administration from the vantage point of one of the few Republican "moderates" in the Senate

Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) served in the United States Senate at a time when his Republican Party drifted so far right it no longer stood for its mainstream principles. In the face of his party's wrongheaded direction under George W. Bush, Lincoln Chafee became, even more fiercely, what he had always been...his own leader.

Chafee's ideological positions make his voting record among the most liberal of the Republicans in the Senate. And it's no surprise that he has an eye-opening story to tell about his 7-year journey in national politics, from small-town mayor to a unique national voice.

AGAINST THE TIDE is an unabashedly frank political memoir and a forward-looking assessment of what comes next for the Republican and Democratic parties. More importantly it is a book for every American who cares about understanding where we've been under George W. Bush and where we're going in 2008 and beyond.

Kirkus Reviews

Former Senator Chafee (R-RI) recounts bitterly partisan politics and his disaffection from the GOP. "If only they'd listened to me"-that classic lament of the ignored or spurned Washington politician-gets a full workout in this book likely to disappoint even Chafee's admirers. Appointed from the Warwick mayoralty to fill the Senate seat left by his legendary father, Chafee was elected in his own right in 2000 and found himself immediately at odds with a bullying administration pushing for unprecedented tax cuts, starving social programs and weakening environmental regulations, all a prelude to the complete emasculation of Congress made possible by the events of 9/11. The lone Senate Republican to vote against the Iraq War, Chafee would later oppose the nominations of John Bolton to the United Nations and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, enraging the GOP base and guaranteeing a primary opponent in his 2006 reelection bid. Weakened by that battle, the pro-choice, antiwar and fiscally responsible Chafee, too Republican for Democrats, too Democrat for Republicans, lost the general election. The author wishes to be taken as a man of conscience, but he too often presents himself as the only wise man in the room, happy to throw even putative allies like Senators Olympia Snowe, Dick Lugar and Arlen Specter under the bus to sharpen his own profile in courage. Also on display are the author's pettiness (he refuses to disclose the name of his primary opponent), lame self-justifications (he remained a Republican because of a thoughtful phone call from a powerful colleague and because of all the highway money and military jobs that might otherwise have been lost to his state) and outright silliness(his presidential protest vote in 2004 for George H.W. Bush and his characterization of ideological opponents as "clashists"). His shallow discussion of foreign affairs and his airy paean to the political center confirm the portrait of a lightweight who deserved defeat. Rebuking the 9/11 Commission for its truckling to the White House and for its "flawed and incomplete" report, Chafee revealingly refuses to pass "judgment on the infinite number of conspiracy theories that grew out of September 11."A political memoir characterized by unremitting self-regard and precious little self-awareness. Agent: John Silbersack/Trident Media



Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     ix
A Stiff Dose of Truth     1
Warwick Politics 101     17
Loyal Bullfrogs     33
Winning in 2000     45
The Stalking Horse     53
Al-Qaeda Strikes     67
Beating the War Drum     79
Congress Stands Down     93
The Party of Old King Coal     103
Mission Accomplished     113
The Summer of Blinking Red     127
In Cycle     141
The Kitchen Test     145
Stacking the Court     157
Truman's Eagle     167
Standing In for the President     175
Strong Neighbors     187
The Dual Victories     203
The Future     239
Index     247

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