Becoming A Better Boss Why Good Management is So Difficult

Most management books are written with the following three limitations: (1) they are written from the perspective of the person doing the managing, (2) they take a fairly rational view of human nature, and (3) they assume that the work of management is happening within a reasonably sensible organisational environment.

THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOK ABOUT WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE MANAGER.

Becoming a Better Boss highlights why well-known advice on good management is so rarely heeded. By focusing on management through the eyes of an employee, Julian Birkinshaw gives us insightful and helpful advice on what we might do differently – both as individual managers of others, and as architects of the organizations in which we work.

To achieve this, the author has spent time working “in the trenches” to remind himself what life as an employee feels like, as well as interviewing hundreds of employees and managers and undertaking surveys which have received responses in the thousands.

The resulting book is a radical new look at what makes good management which is applicable to both manager and employee. It takes managers out of their comfort zone and shows how you can do things differently. It shows how the employee can help themselves be managed more effectively and explores the limitations and pathologies of the organizations we work for.

An employee's-eye view of what makes a great boss—and how you can become one

Whereas most books on managing people approach the subject from the perspective of a manager of an idealised organisation, Becoming a Better Boss takes a real-world approach, looking at the topic from the perspective of an employee in a real-world organisation—dysfunctions, warts, and all. Focusing on the choices individual employees make every day in getting work done, this book reinvents the practice of management one employee at a time.

Author Julian Birkinshaw stresses the importance of taking management seriously, reveals where management practice often goes wrong, and dives deeply into the worldview of employees. He then explores the common personal biases and frailties of managers and discusses the vital importance of experimentation to overcome the limitations and idiosyncrasies of a particular organisation. Throughout, he supports his assertions with case studies from a wide and varying range of management experiments and situations at real companies.

• Written by a leading authority on strategy, management, and innovation who is also the author of eleven books, including Reinventing Management
• Introduces a new approach to management focused on real employees and actual situations
• Includes case studies from real organisations

Between the stress of deadlines and the demands of today's business environment, it's easy for managers to lose sight of the importance of people management. Becoming a Better Boss not only shows managers how to lead effectively, but why doing so is vitally important to every organisation's success.