Estimated Reading Time 3 
Minutes
The Effective Manager is one of the books I read earlier this year that has been on my list to recommend to all managers, regardless of experience.
Why a New Manager Needs to Read This Book
This book reminds me of a few of the learning opportunities I encountered years ago as a new manager. Most of the books and seminars I attended got me “fired up” about my new job as a manager, but provided me with few specific tools or actions for implementation. Within a few weeks, it seemed that nothing had changed.
This book is about tools. It defines clearly your job and responsibilities as a manager, and then it gives you a handful of tools to implement to insure you meet those responsibilities.
Why an Experienced Manager Needs to Read this Book
One of the best points the author makes is that even if you are successful as a manager yourself, in order to advance in the organization, you need to be able to teach others how to do what you do. In other words, you need a system that is teachable and sustainable. It also needs to be scalable if you plan to grow your organization. This book puts that system in writing for you and it’s proven to be a system that can be duplicated by anyone who is willing to commit to put it into practice.
Four Critical Behaviors
This book condenses most of what you need to know as a manager into four critical behaviors.
The first is “Get to Know Your People” and the author provides guidance on how to do that by structuring regular one-on-ones with each of your direct reports.
Next is “Communicate about Performance.” This is a challenge for most managers. I can remember asking my boss “how am I supposed to talk to them about their performance?” The author provides an awesome step by step system for doing so effectively.
The third critical behavior is “Ask for More.” This gets into the “how to coach” your people so that they grow and take on more responsibility. If you are ever going to be able to move up in the organization, you need to know how to coach.
And finally, “Push Work Down” which gets into delegation. This is a big weakness of managers at all levels of experience. Unless you can delegate, you will never have time to take on more responsibility and grow yourself.
The Importance of Basics and Fundamentals
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi is reported to have once stood in the locker room in front of a group of professional football players and started the session by saying “Gentlemen, this is a football”. He believed that to be successful one must master the basics and fundamentals. Don’t assume anything.
This book is like that. Don’t assume you know it all or that you even know enough. This book will challenge you to consider how you manage as well as how you can do it better.
I would highly recommend this as a book to have on your shelf and to refer to it often.
