Plan to Manage
Perceptivity in Management and Leadership
100 percent of proceeds go towards the Helm Family Foundation
"You can’t lead what you don’t understand. And you can’t manage what you don’t see."
Plan to Manage is the third and final book in H. Marc Helm’s leadership series—a clear, practical guide to the overlooked discipline of perceptive management.
Behind every successful leader is a team that’s been trained, developed, and supported. Yet too many organizations spend generously on recruitment while underinvesting in what matters just as much: managing the people they’ve hired.
Through decades of experience in the military, business ownership, and leadership development, Marc Helm has learned this truth: most performance issues aren’t just people problems—they’re management problems.
Introducing
Plan to Manage
Perceptivity in Management and Leadership
The difference between good management and great leadership often comes down to perceptivity: the ability to spot patterns, ask the right questions, and understand your people more deeply.
In Plan to Manage, he equips leaders to:
- Understand when an employee’s struggle is a matter of fit—or a failure of leadership
- Manage people with both empathy and accountability
- Prevent culture decay caused by holding onto the wrong people—or letting go of the right ones too soon
- Replace vague feedback with clear expectations and structured support
- See each individual not as a role to fill, but as a human to lead
With characteristic clarity and conviction, Helm offers more than advice—he offers a path forward for leaders who want to build high-performing, values-aligned teams.
100 percent of proceeds go towards the Helm Family Foundation
Readers are Talking
You Need this Book! A Game Changer!
Marc's book, Plan to Manage, is a game changer for anyone looking to level up their leadership skills. Marc lays out clear directions for success in an easy-to-understand way. Highly recommend!
A Clear, Practical Guide to Leading People Well
Plan to Manage is exactly what today’s leaders need—a candid, experience-based look at how to manage people with clarity, empathy, and accountability. H. Marc Helm doesn’t waste time with abstract theory. Instead, he offers real-world insights drawn from his military service, business leadership, and decades of guiding others through complex team dynamics.
What stood out most to me was the focus on perceptivity—the idea that great managers don’t just supervise tasks, they understand people. This book challenges you to reflect on your own leadership blind spots while giving you the tools to coach, correct, or release team members in a way that strengthens the whole organization.
Whether you’re new to management or a seasoned executive, you’ll find practical strategies you can apply immediately. A strong finish to Helm’s trilogy—and one I’ll be recommending often.
