The Effective Supervisor's Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Read this book with your waders on
Review: Do you have a mentor at work? Does your mentor counsel and support you under every conceivable circumstance? Picture your mentor walking toward you down the hall. It's the end of a typical business day---no earth-shaking crises had to be dealt with, just the normal day-to-day challenges of supervision---

Do you duck into the Ladies' Room to avoid yet another of your mentor's long, boring monologues?

I mean, this guy has really helped your career and you are extremely grateful for his assistance, but the next time he starts to lecture you on how to increase employee productivity, you're going to grab him by the lapels and---

I have very mixed feelings about "The Effective Supervisor's Handbook." On the one hand, it is chock-full of solutions to the everyday challenges of supervision. First-line supervision is not a very glamorous topic and this book fills a definite information gap. I have owned a copy of "The Effective Supervisor's Handbook" for at least five years, and I reference it at least one or two times a month.

On the other hand, its author never overlooks an opportunity to state and restate and re-restate the obvious. Here is a sample from the section, "Self-interest and Work":

"As participants in society, people hold memberships in various organizations. Some memberships are voluntary, whereas others are somewhat involuntary. Except for those activities or organizations where membership and participation are involuntary, people usually have a choice of withdrawing from membership."

The climax to this section is, "No one can force you to stay at a job."

The normal reaction upon completing this section is, 'why did we just spend two pages on something this obvious?'

"The Effective Supervisor's Handbook" is exactly as advertised. It has sensible advice for everything from managing the office grapevine, to the benefits and risks of counseling employees. If you are a first-line supervisor, ignore the truck-loads of trendy books on 'leadership' and 'management.' Buy this book, put your waders on, and fish out the bits that apply to your particular situation.

Just don't attempt to read it from cover to cover.

Rating:
Summary: Read this book with your waders on
Review: Do you have a mentor at work? Does your mentor counsel and support you under every conceivable circumstance? Picture your mentor walking toward you down the hall. It's the end of a typical business day---no earth-shaking crises had to be dealt with, just the normal day-to-day challenges of supervision---

Do you duck into the Ladies' Room to avoid yet another of your mentor's long, boring monologues?

I mean, this guy has really helped your career and you are extremely grateful for his assistance, but the next time he starts to lecture you on how to increase employee productivity, you're going to grab him by the lapels and---

I have very mixed feelings about "The Effective Supervisor's Handbook." On the one hand, it is chock-full of solutions to the everyday challenges of supervision. First-line supervision is not a very glamorous topic and this book fills a definite information gap. I have owned a copy of "The Effective Supervisor's Handbook" for at least five years, and I reference it at least one or two times a month.

On the other hand, its author never overlooks an opportunity to state and restate and re-restate the obvious. Here is a sample from the section, "Self-interest and Work":

"As participants in society, people hold memberships in various organizations. Some memberships are voluntary, whereas others are somewhat involuntary. Except for those activities or organizations where membership and participation are involuntary, people usually have a choice of withdrawing from membership."

The climax to this section is, "No one can force you to stay at a job."

The normal reaction upon completing this section is, 'why did we just spend two pages on something this obvious?'

"The Effective Supervisor's Handbook" is exactly as advertised. It has sensible advice for everything from managing the office grapevine, to the benefits and risks of counseling employees. If you are a first-line supervisor, ignore the truck-loads of trendy books on 'leadership' and 'management.' Buy this book, put your waders on, and fish out the bits that apply to your particular situation.

Just don't attempt to read it from cover to cover.