Reviews are important as they direct potential readers to purchase the book. Reviews are also very useful to the author for making changes or amendments to future editions. So, your reviews are very much appreciated.
Reviews can be as simple as one paragraph on what you liked (or didn’t) about What To Do When You Become The Boss, or quite a detailed critique. All reviews are most welcome. Following are some previously written reviews.
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This book’s catchy title suggests that it is targeting senior individuals in positions of authority. In fact it is a general management and leadership text containing a range of material based on tried and tested theory, presented in an easily accessible format.
Selden makes use of tables, bullet points, mini case studies and lists. Combined, these make it easy for the reader to track down some information about a particular management activity.
Chapters in the book address topics such as effective teamwork tactics, recruitment and interview techniques, communication, coaching, influencing and motivation, networking and other run of the mill management techniques. One text can only scratch the surface of these processes, and the suggestion of dipping in and out contained in the foreword is appropriate.
However, before he launches into the management context, Selden explores and applies Honey and Mumford’s famous learning styles, pointing out that unless the reader understands how he/she learns and also how others learn, the process and actions of management and leadership are likely to be less successful. In essence, his point is that whatever the topic, inefficient learning results in poor performance.
This is a ‘how to do’ text, but as it implies its target is senior management. The inclusion of further references to allow the reader to follow up on the ‘taster’ chapters would give added value. However for anyone who wants to learn, refresh and/or develop, at £14.99 this represents good value, and would be a useful pocket text for more junior colleagues.
Reviewed by Julie Hyde MCMI
Even if you don’t manage others yet, chances are you will at some stage of your career. So learning how to become a brilliant manager of people is likely to be a valuable investment of your time.
A recent IABC survey of communicators in Australia found that more than 70% manage staff, 10% manage a dozen or more, and over 20% aspire to head communication in a larger organisation. So it is appropriate to review a great new book that can help everyone become a better manager.
This is a 279 page paperback written by a consultant with many decades of experience in learning and development. There are five parts to this highly practical and easy-to-read book: Leading and Managing (2 chapters explaining these); Managing your team (8 chapters covering selection, performance standards, teamwork, coaching, motivation, giving feedback, appraisal, termination); Managing upwards and sideways (3 chapters covering influencing others, selecting your boss, managing your boss); Managing your meetings (2 chapters), and Managing yourself (7 chapters including delegation, productivity, emails, mistakes to avoid, and developing your image).
It’s comprehensive with lots of diagrams. One is so good I’ve been using it with my masters students to explain the difference between leading (path finding) and managing (path minding). Even if your top team is fully in path finding mode, Selden suggests that the executive team should not be called the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) but rather the Senior Management Team (SMT) as it is the followers who decide if you are really leaders, not you.
There are lots of examples, case studies, tables, lists, action plans, implementation steps, template forms and the like. It is a very practical “how-to-do-it-book”.
It is even designed to be read differently depending on the reader’s predominant learning style with a test to check what style you are (i.e. activist, reflector, theorist or pragmatist). But, even so, it’s probably not the sort of book you’d read in one sitting (e.g. on a plane). It’s more a reference work you’d go through chapter by chapter as a new manager and then dip back into from time to time. Strongly recommended.
What a refreshing joy it was to read Bob Selden's wonderfully practical book which at last takes management out of the 19th century Fayol / Taylor approach and shows us how management really works in the 21st century. What's the big difference? Recognizing people management today is all about managing "24/7 human beings", not "9-5 work robots".
For too long managers have tried to push square pegs into round holes – fitting emotional beings into inanimate systems. When they don’t fit, find one that does. 19th century workers had no choice but to accept whatever they were told. Today's workers make their own decisions about life and work.
Selden's book drips with experience, with liberal use of humane words and phrases like discuss, agree, share, praise, involve, enjoyment, appreciation, frequent and immediate feedback, recognition, thanks and - dare I mention it - feelings. He doesn’t flinch however from the tough bits and gives sage-like advice on how to sack an unsatisfactory worker.
Selden also realizes that a good management book is a tool for finding answers when required. Selden respects our differences. In his categorization of managers (readers), I am largely an activist and so I liked being directed to the sections I should read first.
Selden echoes Ken Blanchard's famous saying "when did you last catch an employee doing something right?" with a refreshing emphasis on building on peoples' strengths. But he also emphasizes the need for praise to be genuine.
"What To Do When You Become The Boss" will be welcomed by the emerging scene of female managers who instinctively apply emotional intelligence principles and by the x and y generation young leaders. Older managers who are being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century of people management will find Selden's book to be the ideal secret reading under the bedcovers.
If you are searching for a book to read to help you in your role as a manager, look no farther. Bob Selden has done an excellent job covering all the bases you will need. I have been in management for 15 years and wish this book would have been available for reading and studing before I started as a manager. You will learn that managing is getting things done through people. You will learn how to manage people through the hiring process, setting expectations, motivating, holding then accountable and appraising. Also the difficult task of firing when all else fails. You will also learn how to manage people through delegation and influence to get the most work done. I also enjoyed the end of the book that explained mistakes that new managers make and how to avoid them.
This book is packed with useful information that my review can not begin to cover, buy and read the book, it will be very beneficial.
The forward of the book sums up the books value:
"You usually have to make a mistake before your boss explains how you should have done it. This book tells you how not to make mistakes in all the critical areas of leading and managing". I could not agree more.
As a business coach, WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU BECOME THE BOSS by Bob Selden, is a book I will reference often. I found several really powerful ideas for more effective leadership and management.
Selden opens his work with a way for the reader to determine their best methods of study. I found myself to be equal parts Activist and Protagonist and followed the direction of study as indicated, which means I skipped over a few parts here and there. In time, I will probably read the entire text.
Throughout the text, Selden varies his approach, recognizing the differences in management styles. This is a refreshing variation from the normal "one size fits all" we find in so many management and leadership books. I guess the thing that impressed me the most with this book is the amount of fresh ideas.
Don't get me wrong. You will find a few things you've heard before in one way or another, but you'll also find ideas that will definitely make you alter your approach. Overall, a good book for any level of management. Easy to comprehend and covers a lot of territory.
My mother often told me that I became a leader when I was just eight years old. That is when I captained my first soccer team; then it was my first cricket team; then I became head boy at my junior school; then…..well, I just was always leading and I don’t ever remember it being difficult, until that is, I got my first management job at the tender age of twenty-two.
Then I realised that there was more to it than merely being inspirational and occasionally bossy: Unfortunately, at that time, there were very few good management training programmes, not that many good books and no internet – how things have changed over the last thirty years. Now there is a plethora of all of those but still very few really, really good ones, particularly for those people taking their first tentative step onto the management ladder.
So I was particularly pleased to discover an excellent new book from Bob Selden – “What To Do When You Become The Boss” and despite my challenging workload over the past few weeks, I managed to find the time to read it all the way through, which with my low-boredom threshold, says everything about Bob’s work.
It is an excellent step by step guide for any new manager and it covers virtually every aspect of professional management – allow me to quote Bob:
“Most new managers get very little initial training about how to manage. Generally new managers are promoted or selected for the role because of their excellent technical or professional expertise. It is assumed therefore that they will also be expert at people management.
This book fills the “people management” learning gap for new managers. Here is your complete “How to” for both managing and leading. Learn how to best manage your boss, your people and yourself in the all important first management role. The book covers hiring, motivating, delegating, influencing, managing time, firing – in fact everything you will need to know and learn about leading and managing.”
If you only have time to do just one thing, now that you are struggling with all the new challenges which have arrived with that recent promotion, buy this book and keep it in the top drawer of your desk – it will be one of the best investments you have ever made.
Where to buy it? Go here , as soon as you can or just click on the book.
Taking on a new managerial role that requires effective, responsible leadership and the ability to maintain strong relationships is not something that comes naturally to everyone. Many new managers are faced with unfamiliar situations and training is frequently lacking. For managers who are in this situation or for those who are looking at ways to improve, “What To Do When You Become The Boss” is a straight-forward guide that takes you through the ins and outs of leadership.
With clear, concise explanations, tips, worksheets and step-by-step walkthroughs Bob Selden has written a book which can be applied straight away to your daily life. Management styles are broken down into four segments, activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists. By identifying your management style new and experienced managers can focus on the specific aspects which apply most to them.
Leaders are in a position to positively or negatively influence the company and those who work for them. By following Bob Selden’s advice readers will discover how to become more effective in their role, no matter how large the team. With time management tips, understanding the importance of managing your work relationships and how to be effective and motivating in your role, every reader will find something which they can apply to their lives.
Highly practical and constantly pushing personal reflection and action, “What To Do When You Become The Boss” is a fantastic reference guide which will help leaders all the way up the corporate ladder.
In today's fast paced world with corporate restructuring, management shuffling, and employee's transferring from one office to another, the standard office hierarchy is no longer readily apparent. This is often not too big of a problem for the corporation or for the productivity of the office – it just takes a little while for everyone to re-settle into their roles and to begin working effectively again. However, what happens if you are suddenly transferred to another office AND given a promotion? What happens when you become the boss and have to make sure that everyone in the office is ok with you, your new role, and your management skills? If you have not been in a managerial role prior to this, it can be kinda scary. All of a sudden YOU are the one who is directing the work flow and making sure that the company stays productive.
Well, the new book by former senior manager Bob Selden, should be the first thing you consult upon your new position as boss. Taking the wisdom developed from managing banks to his last position as a senior manager responsible for the career development of hundreds of other managers, What To Do When You Become The Boss is essential reading. Broken down into five parts, the book covers all aspects of management: from managing your “team” to the larger aspects of management within the company itself.
One of the best parts about this book is that it is not written in standard management speak. That is, Bob uses plain language to ensure that all of the tidbits, advice, and kernels of wisdom can be absorbed. For example, in the beginning Bob outlines four basic learning styles that help identify how you – the new boss – learn the best. This is essential as Bob explains, because if you are an Activist learner you will learn – and manage – very differently then if you are a Theorist. Once you have figured out just what kind of learner you are, the next four sections of the book cover just what you need to know to become an effective – and well liked – boss. Ranging from how to properly work with a team, how to set standards for your employees, how to influence others, how to work with groups and teams in decision making, to how to delegate and beyond.
Honestly, What To Do When You Become The Boss should be assigned reading for anyone in business school or for those who work within a large corporation. Not only will the advice offered in this book be beneficial to you and your career, but you will also help the company grow as a result. And we all know, if you help the company grow you will be rewarded. So if you want to be successful, I strongly recommend this book – you and your career will thank me.
I work a great deal with high potential people who have succeeded as experts or functional specialists and are trying to make an equal success of their first managerial role. Generally, they struggle with some of the basic management challenges such as how to delegate, how to motivate their team, how to give feedback, how to influence others and how to manage the perceptions of their general mangement competence upwards. Bob's book enables these people to access his many years of experience and his accumulated wisdom and put it to good use straight away.
Not only is this book a bit of a 'New Boss's Bible', it lures you in through your own particular learning style and meets you where you will derive the most value.
Rich with case studies, warnings, distilled knowledge and common sense, this book is an essential aide to anyone venturing into this territory for the first time. There is no other book like it!
This is an exceptional handbook for the new manager. It's comprehensive - covering leading and managing, managing your team, managing upwards and sideways, managing your meetings and managing yourself. It's an extremely valuable off-the-shelf personal management development training course, with very relevant case studies and actionable insights all based on the most contemporary and sound leadership values and principles.
A very unique and engaging feature is the opportunity to use the book according to your preferred approach to learning. Selden has "put it all together" in one of the best management handbooks I have ever read.
This should be required reading for all new managers and a required "refresher" for everyone else.
Excellant practical guide to manage self and people reporting, as well as manage upwards. The good thing about this book is that there is not much theoratical content but orientation is from practical, day to day life. That makes it interesting. Must read book for all Managers.
Becoming the boss is something that all managers have experienced, sometimes a number of times as they climb the corporate ladder. Getting the job often results in a mixture of elation and terror as the new manager realizes that they are in a different world with different and unfamiliar rules . . .
. . . In summary, this is an excellent and dense book that does what it says on the tin: helping new managers become successful managers.
See the full review at http://changingminds.org/books/book_reviews/become_boss.htm
An absolute gem of a book whether you manage a team of 50 or a family of 5!
Read it - it`s a must!!
Bob shares some great information for new and seasoned managers, not only offering instruction and tips he gives you worksheets and plans you can use to start making positive changes today. It is obvious as you read this book that Bob knows what he is talking about and can help us be successful.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs everywhere, it will help you grow your management skills that you will use with your employees, with vendors, with associates and with anyone you do business with.
I will highly recommend this book to my consulting clients.
Bob uses case studies and examples to create a very practical guide to becoming a more effective manager. His writing style avoids over use of 'management speak' and is easily accessable to all levels of management
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