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A review by abelikoff
The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman
1.0
I'm having too many issues with this book to consider it useful...
THE APPROACH. Business has changed a lot over last 20 years and so did the office dynamics. While in the sixties it went without saying that a manager is an absolute unquestioned authority lording over the minions, so that the only acceptable response would be "Yes, boss!" things are different now. Relationship between a manager and a subordinate has become more complex, with more power to the latter. Part of this is because newer industries (like technology) actually require the people in the trenches to be damn smart rather than being mere cogs in the corporate machine. Another reason is general emancipation of workforce and the trend toward more socially-aware, more humane world.
Sadly, it looks like the authors have missed the memo. Most of the examples, most of the scenarios discussed revolve around the good old "boss/underling" microcosm. For sure, they advise the manager to exercise restraint and ask instead of demanding things but this feels merely like a veneer over the direct order.
This leads me to the biggest issue I have with the authors' approach. When dealing with changing the future behavior via feedback, the strategy they propose is to get the report to "promise" the change in the future and then treat it as a hard commitment. Anyone who has been in the management role for some time (or raised children, which is strikingly similar in some aspects) would know that life is more complex and a verbal statement to change things (which is easy to elicit when confronting one's subordinate and is equally easy for that subordinate to make in order to get out of this situation) is not the same as a firm commitment (which requires planning and follow-up). Treating it as one will only lead to frustration on both sides and unfulfilled promises.
THE UPSELL. I get it - the authors run a management consulting business and they want to grow it. But it doesn't mean that almost every paragraph should pitch their podcast. Furthermore, taking an obvious fact or technique and slapping "Manager Tools" onto its name doesn't make it new or original! And this applies to a lot of things in the book - it seems hardly a single itemized list avoided that treatment.
Overall, I cannot say this book is useless and I'm sure anyone in a managerial role would be able to learn a trick or two from it. At the same time, I would never recommend this book to a new inexperienced manager - the approach and techniques proscribed in it will not work in the modern workplace and will set that person (and their team) up for failure.
THE VERDICT: Don't bother. Given that there are much better books on the art (and craft) of management (if you don't know where to start, start with [b:High Output Management|324750|High Output Management|Andrew S. Grove|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347800461s/324750.jpg|315440] by late Andy Grove), I don't see any incremental merit in reading this book.
THE APPROACH. Business has changed a lot over last 20 years and so did the office dynamics. While in the sixties it went without saying that a manager is an absolute unquestioned authority lording over the minions, so that the only acceptable response would be "Yes, boss!" things are different now. Relationship between a manager and a subordinate has become more complex, with more power to the latter. Part of this is because newer industries (like technology) actually require the people in the trenches to be damn smart rather than being mere cogs in the corporate machine. Another reason is general emancipation of workforce and the trend toward more socially-aware, more humane world.
Sadly, it looks like the authors have missed the memo. Most of the examples, most of the scenarios discussed revolve around the good old "boss/underling" microcosm. For sure, they advise the manager to exercise restraint and ask instead of demanding things but this feels merely like a veneer over the direct order.
This leads me to the biggest issue I have with the authors' approach. When dealing with changing the future behavior via feedback, the strategy they propose is to get the report to "promise" the change in the future and then treat it as a hard commitment. Anyone who has been in the management role for some time (or raised children, which is strikingly similar in some aspects) would know that life is more complex and a verbal statement to change things (which is easy to elicit when confronting one's subordinate and is equally easy for that subordinate to make in order to get out of this situation) is not the same as a firm commitment (which requires planning and follow-up). Treating it as one will only lead to frustration on both sides and unfulfilled promises.
THE UPSELL. I get it - the authors run a management consulting business and they want to grow it. But it doesn't mean that almost every paragraph should pitch their podcast. Furthermore, taking an obvious fact or technique and slapping "Manager Tools" onto its name doesn't make it new or original! And this applies to a lot of things in the book - it seems hardly a single itemized list avoided that treatment.
Overall, I cannot say this book is useless and I'm sure anyone in a managerial role would be able to learn a trick or two from it. At the same time, I would never recommend this book to a new inexperienced manager - the approach and techniques proscribed in it will not work in the modern workplace and will set that person (and their team) up for failure.
THE VERDICT: Don't bother. Given that there are much better books on the art (and craft) of management (if you don't know where to start, start with [b:High Output Management|324750|High Output Management|Andrew S. Grove|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347800461s/324750.jpg|315440] by late Andy Grove), I don't see any incremental merit in reading this book.