Meet Julie Straw - Author of The 4-Dimensional Manager

Julie Straw has been in the training and development profession for more than 25 years. She has worked in a variety of positions including program development, sales and technical support training, and product development. In her current role at Inscape Publishing, Julie oversees a network of 2,200 trainers, coaches, and consultants who deliver training to a wide variety of industries. Julie’s goal is to help this diverse network succeed by providing tools to meet its evolving needs. She is the chief architect of the Inscape Publishing trainer “community of practice,” creating MindShare, a message board dialogue of best practices and support, and MindLab Forty-Eight, a two-day conference dedicated to honing the craft of training.
 
Julie holds a BS degree in education as well as an MBA.

  We interviewed Julie on April 23, 2008.  Listen in:

The 4-Dimensional Manager.

Successful managers work like coaches, assessing each person's strengths and weaknesses and developing the best strategy to get the job done. The 4-Dimensional Manager shows how managers can become more effective by using the DiSC system.

"DiSC" stands for four communication styles:

• Dominance (direct and decisive);
• Influence (optimistic and outgoing);
• Supportive (sympathetic and cooperative); and
• Conscientious (concerned and correct).

In the book's first part, readers assess their own style, the style of the people they manage, and the style of their organization. The second part shows how to choose the most effective style (or combination of styles) for any situation, focusing on seven key areas: delegating, decision making, problem solving, motivating, complimenting, giving constructive feedback, and developing skills.