 Coach Tales
Nancy's Coach Tales Issue Two
Book Review: A book for managers that's good, but could have been great: Bob Rosner's Boss's Survival Guide.
Think About It: Earning a living as a double challenge: Katharine Hepburn's simple equation.
BOOK REVIEW: Boss's Survival Guide, by Bob Rosner, Allan Halcrow, and Alan Levins, McGraw Hill 2001.
(Management)
Let's face it, the world is chock full of managers who don't know how to do the most important part of their job--motivate their employees. They flail around, trying the same things over and over. They alternately yell and threaten or ignore everyone hoping things will just work themselves out. When things go wrong, as frequently happens, they have to spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with the high turnover in their departments, all the while complaining about the disloyalty of today's employees.
I had great hopes that this book from Bob Rosner, who writes a syndicated column called "Working Wounded," would throw all these managers a much needed lifeline, giving them detailed instructions on the care and feeding of employees. It came close, but in the end I had to conclude that it is only a good book that could have been great.
The first chapter was everything I hoped for. It validated the job-hopping approach of many of today's employees as a sensible reaction to the layoffs starting in the 80's, rather than a moral failing on the part of today's GenXers. It proclaimed the importance of retaining talented employees even though labor shortages of the present are not as dire as they were in 1999. Finally it listed twelve do's and don'ts a good manager can follow to motivate employees to stay on and excel, like teaching them to find their own solutions to problems rather than simply telling them what to do in microscopic detail. In sum, these guys sounded like they understood today's worker and could tell us everything we needed to know to get the most from that worker.
Unfortunately, instead of expanding in this direction the bulk of the book was spent presenting a step-by-step analysis of the employment cycle from hiring to firing. I had to wade through two-thirds of the book before getting back to advice on managing performance. The advice is good, if not nearly as detailed as I hoped, but the book could well lose readers long before they get back to it.
Not that the rest of the book is bad. It is well laid out, with a short section devoted to each issue managers face. Each section is then divided into three parts: the first explains what the issue is, the second tells what to do about it, and the third warns about possible legal problems to guard against. (Some sections have a bonus, like recommended reading or jaw-dropping examples of real life managers acting like they belong in a Dilbert comic.)
It was a good set up, but soon the legal voice of Rossner's co-author started creeping into every paragraph. The graphically detailed warnings of how things could go horribly wrong became so overwhelming I had visions of managers huddled under their desks, muttering about sexual harassment and drug testing, afraid to do anything in case they made a wrong move.
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Levins is a senior partner in the law firm that is the most outspoken advocate for management rights in the U.S. His handprints are all over this book. It's as if he had his minions (and every senior partner has minions) go over the book line by line looking for anything that could possibly go wrong. Then, in good lawyerly fashion, he listed all the ways to avoid the potential problems or at least mitigate the fallout from them. This is what lawyers do, and they did it well, but in my less-than-humble opinion this approach is likely to get in the way of what managers do well. Yes, a manager needs to protect her company from legal problems, but her main focus should be on inspiring those who work for her to get their work done.
(As an aside, let me point out that Levins turned his Acknowledgements section at the beginning of the book into a blatant plug for his law firm. Alan, that is not just bad form, it's downright embarrassing! Next time acknowledge your family, ok?)
The Bottom Line: everyone who manages should have this book on their shelf. They should read it. They should review a relevant section before taking an action, like termination, to help avoid legal problems. But when it comes to bringing out the best from their employees, they should use this book as a springboard to more information, not as the last word on the subject.
>>>jump to top of page
THINK ABOUT IT:
"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find a way that is going to be interesting." -- Katharine Hepburn
>>>jump to top of page
| 
