The Good Manager: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century Manager - Softcover

Gualco, Dean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1450206573 ISBN 13: 9781450206570

Verlag: iUniverse, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

In times previous, managers were respected and idealized by those in the political, economic, and societal circles of our country. Employees felt a sense of trust in their managers, and managers a sense of duty to their employees. That feeling has largely dissipated. An increasing number of books, magazine articles, and newspaper columns have been written denigrating the managerial profession, blaming the average manager for the distrust in our political institutions, the collapse of our economic system, and the stresses in our societal compositions. It is not right, it is not accurate, and it is not fair.

The Good Manager: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century Managerpresents the six key attributes of a good manager. The most important attribute - the one that will most likely determine your success or failure as a manager - is the ability to be a good person, one who lives a decent and honorable life, who is incredibly kindhearted, controls the most destructive human emotions, tells the truth, does what's right, and always looks for the good along the road of life. The Good Manager teaches the fundamentals of management by illustrating how a decent and honorable person can move along the intellectual/moral spectrum to become a good manager.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dean Gualco is the owner of Torgun Consulting and serves as the Human Resources Manager for the City of Lodi. He earned his master's from the University of Southern California and his doctorate from the University of the Pacific. His most recent book was "The Great People of our Time (2008)."

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The Good Manager

A Guide for the Twenty-First Century ManagerBy Dean Gualco

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Dean Gualco
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-0657-0

Contents

Introduction................................................11The Changing Profession.....................................17The Manager.................................................18A Collapse..................................................20The Blame Game..............................................21The Image of a Manager......................................25A Rewarding Profession......................................26Summary: The Changing Profession............................30Like What You Do............................................32Summary: Like What you Do...................................38Knowledgeable...............................................40Professional and Personal Experiences.......................45Knowledge of Your Job.......................................49Knowledge of Your Company...................................50Knowledge of Your Industry..................................51Summary: Knowledge..........................................55Solid Organizational Skills.................................57Ability to Plan.............................................57Ability to Delegate.........................................60Ability to Manage Time......................................63Summary: Organizational Skills..............................68Work Hard...................................................69Drive.......................................................71Sacrifice...................................................74Summary: Work Hard..........................................75Make Work Fun...............................................77Care about People...........................................79Find the Right Person for the Right Job.....................82An Extraordinary Attitude...................................87Summary: Make Work Fun......................................90Be a Good Person............................................91The Last Word...............................................99References..................................................104

Chapter One

The Changing Profession

The collapse of our economy has had a profound impact on the economic, political, and social fabric of our nation. Following catastrophic events of this nature, there is a natural tendency to find someone or something to blame, and two entities have received the most attention: the federal government and the managerial profession. The inability of government to accurately forecast and prevent this collapse has been well chronicled in a host of books and articles. Similarly, the mistakes by management to competently manage its business have grabbed the nation's attention, provoking anger at some manager's unethical and duplicitous conduct. This anger has been aimed at the managerial profession at large rather than to a minute segment of the profession that acted irresponsibly and unprofessionally.

I am convinced, though, that the image and profession of a manager can be rehabilitated. Identifying the attributes of a good manager, as outlined in this book, is an important contribution to that effort. First, however, it is beneficial to provide a broad context on the role of the manager in organizations along with how the circumstances and events of the past few years have fundamentally altered the profession, thus requiring a new way of thinking from today's manager.

THE MANAGER

"Manager" is a difficult term to define in business. This seems odd to some, especially since thousands of books have been written on the art and science of management, not including the countless books written about organizations, governments, and businesses, all in which a manager plays a key role in their success and failure. Yet, it is surprising how few managers can give a succinct and refined definition of management or understand the principal tenants of the managerial profession.

Let's start with a fairly basic definition of a manager: a manager is someone who has the responsibility to utilize an organization's material resources and to leverage cooperation from employees in order to attain a goal that is deemed important to the organization's success. What are these resources? Resources primarily revolve around people, money, and property; examples would include employees, computers, budgets, office space, volunteers, etc. Managers hope to utilize these resources in the most efficient and effective manner. By doing so they give the organization to which they belong a better chance of achieving its stated strategic objectives, whether that is producing a product or generating a service.

It is a common misunderstanding of the management profession to believe that managers and leaders are one and the same and that a good manager is also a good leader. A person can be both: some individuals can envision the future of an organization (a key trait of a leader) and then marshal the necessarily organizational resources to achieve that vision (a key role of a manager). I believe, though, that that distinction is more the exception than the rule. Each organizational role, both leader and a manager, has a different skill set, and it is the rare person who possesses both. Steve Jobs is a good example. Steve Jobs was the chief executive of Apple Computers for a number of years after its founding. He parted with the company a few years after its founding, having found that managing an organization is much different, and less interesting, than creating it. Of course, he later made a triumphant return to the top position at Apple Computers, having learned the skills necessary to manage an organization. His recent tenure at Apple Computers is a testament that managerial skills can be learned, if you have the knowledge, desire, and ability to do so.

A few more words need to be said about the distinction between a manager and a leader. Generally speaking, leaders set the overall direction of an organization. They determine the goals that the organization will pursue, and then they select the manager to achieve those goals. Managers, in contrast, have some influence on the direction of the organization but more so on how those goals are achieved. An analogy helps highlight the different roles a leader and a manager play in an organization. As a leader, you would determine the country to visit; as a manager, you would determine the best mode of transportation to get there and where to stay once you were there.

Successful organizations are created by visionary people with an idea or concept for something different and better. This success forces the organization to grow in size and scope; at this point, it often becomes necessary to hire a professional manager as the knowledge and skills necessary to create an organization are different than the knowledge and skills necessary to manage an organization. Leaders and managers both play vital roles in the organization, making it necessary that they possess the required knowledge, skills, and abilities that are unique to their profession, along with an understanding of the economic, political, and social events of the day. And rarely have events so tested the skills and abilities of managers as those occurring since 2008.

A COLLAPSE

Our nation's diminishing respect and confidence in management has been several years coming. We see employees who have lost their jobs, shareholders who...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1450206573
• ISBN 13: 9781450206570
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 112
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland