Book excerpt: In The Type B Manager, Victor Lipman offers a unique lens through which to view the challenging problems of management. While management has long been considered the realm of Type A individuals—hard-driving, competitive high achievers—all too often these high-intensity traits aren’t effective when it comes to motivating your employees. Many characteristics of Type B individuals—being more relaxed, less competitive, more reflective, slower to anger—can be considered “people skills” that better influence motivation and productivity. And successful management after all is the practice of accomplishing work through other people. In a business landscape where 70 percent of employees are disengaged and not working at full productive capacity, Lipman focuses on practical tactical aspects of management viewed through a Type B lens, including: · Motivating and developing employees · Handling conflict, and · Engendering trust and respect He examines specific skills, behaviors, and situations where a Type B mindset is advantageous and suggests ways that self-described Type A managers can boost their effectiveness by adopting Type B approaches—and vice versa.