How to Quickly Become a Much Better Manager
Sep 7th, 2010 by David Svet
Book Review: Managing (Right) for the First Time by David C. Baker
Twitter version: Manage people? Buy this book now.
This is a first for Spurspectives, a book review. Those of you who know me are aware that I read a lot, so it may seem strange that this is the first book review that I’ve published here. Actually, it’s not so strange. I find most of the books I read somewhat helpful but largely unremarkable. So, I don’t remark. There are a handful of books that I find remarkable and want to share with you. This is the first.
Full disclosure: I know David Baker and have hired him many times as a consultant. He gave me a copy of this book. I would gladly pay full price for it.
Managing (Right) for the First Time is subtitled A Field Guide for Doing it Well. This is a field guide in every way. You will want to read and re-read it often. It is a book to keep close by and refer to on a regular basis. That makes it fundamentally different from most other business books in the popular press. I find that most popular business books take a fairly ordinary idea (pursue uncontested markets) that you’ve heard about before (hit ‘em where they ain’t) give it a slick name (blue ocean strategy) and offer 200 pages of anecdotal evidence to back up their thesis. For me, that’s unremarkable. Managing Right is not one of those books. It is a field guide for first time managers and experienced managers who want to be better at their job. It’s remarkable because page after page it consistently and accurately answers the question most asked by managers — how?
If you have ever been a manager and suddenly wondered, “how do I do ___?” you will appreciate this book. It carefully walks the reader through the management process beginning with how you got here in the first place. It explains how you got the knots in your stomach and how to get rid of them. It covers among other things:
• How to start off right
• How to manage your boss
• How to find good employees
• How to structure roles
• How to do performance reviews
• How to be a leader worth following
• How to create and sustain a strong, positive culture
• How to maintain a healthy work/life balance
In short, all of the stuff that every new manager wonders about but usually has to figure out by trial and error. Given that we learn from our mistakes, this is a particularly harsh sentence to inflict on your colleagues. Baker’s book will help you to avoid trial by fire while making you and everyone around you happier and more productive.
Managing people is a lonely job. Managing people for the first time is lonely, confusing and often dreadful. Baker knows this from first hand experience and from working with thousands of managers at hundreds of professional service firms. This book distills that experience and offers it as a simple, witty, easy to read guide. It’s purpose is to alleviate the dread, clear up the confusion and acknowledge that yes, managing people is a lonely job — now get over it and do it well. Reading it I found myself having many Homer Simpson moments — Doh! I wish I’d known that.
One of Baker’s recommendations is to prepare a welcome basket and put it on the desk of new employees so that they have everything they need and some goodies to make them feel loved upon arrival. If they are a new manager, you’ll want to include a copy of this book in their basket. You will all be much better off.
Photo: Patrick Denker, Flickr, Creative Commons
