Essential Managers: Dealing With People [Paperback]

Robert Heller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789448610 | ISBN-13: 978-0789448613 | Publication Date: November 1, 1999 | Edition: First Edition

Practical techniques show you how to influence behavior and build positive interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

Learn all you need to know about managing staff -- from understanding why people behave in certain ways to recognizing talents and encouraging creativity. Dealing with People shows you how to communicate constructively and encourage harmonious working relationships. It also provides practical techniques to use when resolving conflicts, appraising staff performance, and dealing with complaints. Power tips help you to handle real-life situations and develop first-class people skills that will enable you to build a committed, motivated team. The Essential Manager have sold more than 1.9 million copies worldwide! Experienced and novice managers alike can benefit from these compact guides that slip easily into a briefcase or a portfolio. The topics are relevant to every work environment, from large corporations to small businesses. Concise treatments of dozens of business techniques, skills, methods, and problems are presented with hundreds of photos, charts, and diagrams. It is the most exciting and accessible approach to business and self-improvement available.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dale Carnegie, step aside--this sharply designed, itty-bitty handbook aims to give you, in 72 pages, all the key strategies you need to get along with and manage people in the workplace... and sometimes even succeeds! Here, with the help of lots of snappy sidebars, graphics, checklists, and charts, you'll learn how to develop basic people skills like understanding human behavior, building people's confidence, and gaining their trust; develop the people you manage in the workplace by providing training, improving their skills, nurturing talent, motivating progress, and teaching by example; find solutions to thorny "people problems" like how to build positive work environments, open closed minds, handle conflict, and deal with "difficult types"; and assess your people's performances and reward them accordingly. Granted, if you're looking for very specific or in-depth guidance, you may find this book too cursory and general in its approach. But if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basics, it'll do you just fine.

It's worth mentioning that the book is also part of reference publisher Dorling Kindersley's Essential Managers series--20 itty-bitty li'l books on business and career topics ranging from communication, leadership, and decision making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the For Dummies book series's talent for breaking down a lot of information into bite-size bits and sidebars with Dorling Kindersley's signature design style of crisp, classy graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, they don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking and they don't necessarily reflect any unique individual perspective. Instead, it's as though someone collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand on the last few pages of each volume. Again, they're not for anyone looking for more in-depth or focused help on any of the subjects they cover, but they're perfect as a quickie general-interest reference... and let's face it, they're so damned cute and look so smart in a neat little stack or row that you'll probably want to buy a whole bunch to give to your entire staff or department. --Timothy Murphy

About the Author

Simon Howard is a Chairman of Park Human Resources and a director of SHL Group, one of the world's leaders in the design and publishing of psychometric tests and other recruitment systems. He writes a weekly column on recruitment and employment issues and regularly contributes to People Management.

Robert Heller is a leading authority on management consulting and was the founding editor of Management Today. He is the author of many acclaimed and worldwide best selling books, including The Naked Manager, Culture Shock, and The Way to Win.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT; First Edition edition (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789448610
• ISBN-13: 978-0789448613
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keys to the file cabinet of management wisdom!, February 18, 2001

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Managers: Dealing With People (Paperback)

While your ability to manage improves with experience, this 72-page mini-guide will help you to master the fundamentals of successful management techniques. This book is filled with practical techniques to show you how to influence behavior and build positive interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

Through an understanding of why people behave in certain ways, you can use practical techniques to resolve conflicts and build a committed, motivated team.

"Natural instinctive behavior is not always appropriate in the workplace." pg. 6

Robert Heller shows how people adopt instinctive modes of behavior. This includes: reacting emotionally, avoiding risks, fighting under threat, spreading gossip, competing for status, dwelling on past successes, feeling more comfortable in small groups, drawing conclusions and fragmenting into small warring groups.

In order to encourage cooperation, Robert suggests that appropriate behavior must be followed. This includes: establishing facts, taking risks, encouraging non-combative relationships, insisting on detailed analysis before judgment, practicing total open communication, recognizing achievement not status, learning from mistakes and choosing to work in cooperative groups.

Robert Heller is a leading authority on management consulting. He shows how people have higher needs, such as pride in work. People want to feel valued. This book will show managers how to help employees build confidence, communicate clearly and achieve their potential. Through case studies and assessment tests, managers can find solutions to major workplace situations.

I have never read such an enjoyable book on management. This holds many keys to wisdom. This tiny book will help you develop first-class people skills.

~The Rebecca Review