This book has a logical structure, looking at how we can better understand our team members, have greater awareness of our own limitations as a “boss” and how we are constrained in our attempts at good management by the organisation in which we operate.
The book finishes with a brief guess at how managing people will change over the coming decades, because of political, technological and economic changes.
I looked hard for things I did not like and found few. One area I was surprised the author missed was any assessment of whether certain personalities are attracted to particular management roles. His view is that good management relies on being able to let go, give credit to others and demonstrate self-control. All of these are particularly difficult for those who would naturally feel able to command respect and want to head up a team. Dominant personalities do not feel comfortable nurturing a team ethic. The only other flaw I spotted was the presentation of the bar graphs. The scales did not help make the points clearly enough for a non-visual non-statistician like myself.
Other than that, this book is eminently practical, homing in on making bridges over the “rhetoric-reality gap”. The author has conducted extensive research over thousands of questionnaires and interviews, taking years to complete and covering many sectors and levels of employees. He freely admits that many of his conclusions mirror past intuitions and past research.
However, that is the point. Organisations know what should be done, but find a multitude of excuses not to change. Our own interest in the very short term, the bogus excuse of not enough time, the pressure of corporate culture, a frightening lack of understanding of what drives our people and a worryingly inaccurate assessment of ourselves, all contribute to this inertia.
In response, the author offers practical suggestions to implement, including some innovative ideas drawn from marketing, and presents plenty of challenging insights. The book is well illustrated with diagrams and examples ranging from household names to struggling small companies. Well written, with a particular regard for the cultural differences between the US and Europe, the author has produced an engaging, thought-provoking volume.
The biggest compliment I can pay is that I will make reference to this book in my own management classes. If you are looking for inspiration to achieve more with your team, this is a good place to start. Unusually for a business book this is neither lengthy, nor unduly repetitive. Some books take till halfway to get to the ‘good stuff’; Julian Birkinshaw starts even before page 1. I suspect Becoming a Better Boss will be considered a ‘classic’.
Paul Glynn is Director of Sandler West, M25 region.
