As the new sales director for a national computer firm, Alex Gordon was looking forward to his first meeting with the company's district managers.

He decided to end the meeting with the conversation about the importance of the district managers to the company's plans

Later he spoke with one of the senior managers.

Half of our managers are women

The important part played by district managers.

One third of them were senior managers

Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building.

Research shows that managers who have a fixed mind-set are less likely to seek or welcome feedback from their employees than are managers with a growth mind-set.

Even Intel experimented in 2007 with conferring four uninterrupted hours of quiet time (no phone or e-mail) every Tuesday morning on 300 engineers and managers.

A prime example Schweitzer and his colleagues cite is the 2004 collapse of energy-trading giant Enron, where managers used financial incentives to motivate salesmen to meet specific revenue goals.

Business leadership means that managers need to "put first things first," which implies that before leading others, you need to be clear on your own values, abilities, and strengths and be seen as trustworthy.

To be good leaders, managers must pay close attention to their own values, abilities and strengths

So what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world?

In a division of electronic engineers, who were designing equipments so advanced that they work in teams of up to 150, co-workers and managers were asked to nominate the standouts- the stars in productivity and effectiveness

For this to happen, he suggests the multi-cultural managers exhibit understanding of their own and others' cultural influences and limitations.

It's possible that some hiring managers may be drawn to candidates with a particular educational resume, but it's no guarantee.

So senior managers enjoy their jobs more than people working under them.

The central figures in the Chicago schools strike are neither strikers nor managers but 350, 000 children.

This is surprising when you consider the prevailing emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close interpersonal relationships at work.