Drive To Thrive: What It Takes To Become An Inspirational Manager By Bringing The Best Out Of Others

Sharad Bajaj

Dec 2020 · Paper2Publish

About this ebook

Many people are managers or aspire to manage at work – whether you are managing an entire workforce or trying to convince people to support an idea. I want you to ask yourself, do you feel like you are at your best and most natural when you lead others? In Drive to Thrive book, I have explained various team management, team building, and culture building concepts through my own 20 years of experience at Microsoft and Amazon.

Drive to Thrive is a book that will help you bring greater depth, understanding, and clarity to your leadership and management style. Every chapter will propel you towards making operational and managerial excellence a habit to thrive as a manager and build a high performing team. After reading the book, you will be able to effectively manage your team by building the right team culture and putting the right processes in place. This book will explain to you the key team management, team building, and self growth concepts with practical examples.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures my conviction that being a manager or a leader requires conscious effort to serve the team and customers. Becoming a manager is a choice that an individual makes in their life to bring the best out of others, serve their team and customers.

My journey to becoming a manager always stemmed from a desire to help others achieve their goals and make a broader impact on the organization. I challenged myself to be a better leader, manager, and human being, and this conviction has helped me to oversee and lead both small and large teams.

Preface

There are countless books on business, leadership, and management styles, from forgettable to timeless books.

I will tell you what this book is not; this book is not just any other management or leadership style manual that regurgitates old information and compiles it in many pages. Drive to Thrive offers practical techniques that will help navigate, elevate, and enable you to take control of your personal and professional life. It also provides practical ways to manage your team effectively and keep them productive and motivated, especially in this era of remote work.

Suppose you've purchased the Drive to Thrive. In that case, you're an aspiring manager, or you've been frustrated in the past just like me, and you are searching for new ways to become a better manager, both personally and professionally.

You may be an intern, a seasoned professional, an executive, an entrepreneur, or someone who desires growth in their personal and professional lives while working remotely. In that case, you are holding the right book.

I sincerely hope that each page in this book gives you a different perspective on managing your work, team, and life. I will share ideas, tips, and experiences that are not emphasized in schools or colleges.

Ratings and reviews

This book takes a lead explaining about leadership skills and also tells out the ways how to become a better manager, especially in this period of corona, where everything should be managed remotely. Work-Life balance is so much important, for you have only one life to live about. Being someone who had completely focussed on work, the author has understood why the balance is important and he advices for the cause. He tells that work-Life balance is a myth and one should recognize it as one. He explains about Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB), Winning as a team, Teamwork, Growth mindset, Psychological safety- and how these elements are important in the culture. The one thing that bothered me is that it read more like a text book. There could be some more factors employed to make this book interesting. Anyhow, the advices or the points this book portrayed would be useful for people who are looking for a book that explains leadership skills.

When you love doing something, hard work is passion ; otherwise it gives you stress.” I got to learn many things from the book. I really liked when author said that he doesn’t use his mobile as first thing in morning. Even I would like to make this profound change in my life. When author says that professional and personal life balance is a myth, that touches deep. The way the book is structured and drafted is appreciated. Divided into various chapters, followed by chapter summary and reflections. The Charts, graphs or pictures are like cherry on the cake. Language is lucid. Cover page is simple and beautiful. Title resonates the whole theme of book.

I belong to a management background and this book proved to be very informational for me! The book has explained some core concepts of management in very subtle and interesting ways. It has examples, illustrations and quotes. Mentions of a few personal experiences of the author made the book more relatable! The book covers everything from who is a manager to how to be a great manager in just a few pages. Even if you aren't a management student, I recommend you to read the book because a few lessons from it will definitely help you!

About the author

Sharad Bajaj is the Head of Engineering at Amazon (AWS) and a former Microsoft Group Engineering Manager. He is a strategic and visionary leader with over 20 years of experience as a technologist leading global engineering teams. He is recognized for innovation, hiring and developing talent, building large scale enterprises and consumer products and services. Furthermore, he is committed to helping new and seasoned managers to develop innovative ways to lead and manage their team while being the best version of themselves.