I’ve been taking stock lately. Forty years. Thousands of conversations with future managers (MBA students) and practicing managers (executive education and lifelong learning students) from around the world. So many great colleagues.This year marked a major career development: At the end of last semester, I added “Emeritus” to my title of Landmark Communications Professor of Business Administration at the globally ranked Darden School of Business.So now what? I asked myself. But I already knew. Over the years, I had been drafting material that I knew I’d want to share one day. And in September 2024, WHAT IF YOU TRIED THIS AT WORK? A Field Guide of Possibilities for Becoming an Invaluable Manager was published by Köehlerbooks. Previously, I had authored The Secret Language of Financial Reports (McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing) and co-authored Teaching Management: A Field Guide for Professors, Consultants and Corporate Trainers (Cambridge University Press).But WHAT IF YOU TRIED THIS AT WORK is different because it’s personal—both for me and for readers. This book contains a series of management vignettes and related queries to the reader that address not so much what you do at work as who you are at work and how you connect with direct reports and colleagues. Within seven chapters there are 36 vignettes that prompt action and insight for seasoned managers as well as new ones.It’s personal for me for two more reasons. First, the focus of the book is about becoming more relational in one’s management attitude and practice—a valued lesson I learned and embraced in the latter part of my career. Second, I’m a serious home improvement DIY-er—and luckily a successful one. And I’ve included bonus material describing parallels between the book’s lessons and my hammer-in-hand observations: “#10. Paint the Picture” echoed my observation that “if I can picture it, I can usually build it.” “#16. Ask hard questions even when receiving good financial news” is advice akin to “Ask hard questions of the low bidder.” It was fun to bring these two subjects together, to share a bit more of what makes me who I am.I have loved my work—the people I’ve met, the lives I have influenced, and the effects they have had on me. But without a doubt, my family and faith are paramount. I am most proud of my family—my son, my daughter, and eight—yes, eight!—granddaughters. I live in the beautiful rolling hills of central Virginia, with my wonderful wife of many years, a stone’s throw from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello home and his historic University of Virginia.