Loading ...December 2, 2010. Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida)
This review is from: Lateral Approach to Taking Charge: Simple Principles for New Bosses on Building Authority and Partnerships (Hardcover)
This volume is part of a series of books in which the authors give advice on how to manage businesses properly. The books are written as brief interesting novels in which new managers seek advice from an expert on how to be more effective in their new businesses. The authors assure that readers understand the points they are making by repeating the lessons at least three times: when the expert mentions them, when the new manager repeats them, and when each chapter’s ideas are summarized in a check list fashion.
This volume tells the tale of an employee whose boss informs him that he is giving him new responsibilities and a raise if he accepts a rather difficult management position. He must gather a staff from the business’s current employees and from outside and form a new branch that will address a new task with new ideas at cheaper costs. While the boss recognizes that the employee has the potential to do a good job, the employee has no management experience and needs help.
What questions should he ask his boss about the new job and what is expected of him? What should he do to start the new branch? How does he deal with the people who will work for him? How does he stimulate them to perform well? How does he address the anger that his promotion causes in employees who feel that they should have been selected since they are, in their view, more qualified? Can he get them to respect him?
He is given advice about these and many more questions. The advice is relevant to work situations and outside daily life, for people need to know how to manage their lives. He is taught to be himself and how to do it. He is told that he must learn how to act with his boss in a new way since he now has a new job, and how he can teach his employees to work with him. Many other subjects are discussed, including the roles and responsibilities of managers, setting goals and timetables, how bosses can empower new managers, how to translate long-term goals into practical short-time results, how to delegate, and what to do when matters go wrong.
