Führen in der Halle.

Culture is what people do when the boss is not on the shop floor. Whoever takes over a company takes the culture with it.

The book shows owners, plant managers and foremen in metalworking companies with ten to 250 people what leadership means: without an HR department, without a mission statement on the wall, with two shifts, apprentices and agency workers. How to recognise a culture and how working to rule comes about. How to hold one-to-one, annual, criticism and conflict conversations, also while walking. What to do about alcohol, mobile phones, quarrels and suspected theft. How to tackle the one person who tips the team, and when the lawyer belongs in the room. How to lead foremen, let go, introduce processes, keep people and develop them. And what leadership means when the largest customer cuts its call-offs by thirty percent.

A fictional company with 46 people accompanies the book through the first year of a successor who is standing on the shop floor on 2 January while nobody looks at him. At the end of the year it is better, not good: the most honest thing you can promise after a year. With 31 figures, nine conversation guides, twelve checklists, a glossary and an index; 303 pages, A5. Published in German.