Myself and Other Important Matters [Hardcover]

Charles Handy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Management guru Handy quotes Voltaire, How infinitesimal is the importance of anything I do, but how infinitely important it is that I do it. That combination of modesty and determination underlies this autobiography from title to final page. Born in 1932, raised in Ireland and educated at Oxford, Handy disappointed his family by entering trade for Shell Oil in Asia. Returning to London, he embarked on a career that included teaching, writing, broadcasting the BBC Thought for the Day and consulting and managing quasi-public entities. Because his family valued humility, he felt handicapped: A becoming modesty was urged on us.... But if you don't shout, how do you let other people know you are there? Handy muses about this issue amid the story of his steadily growing success, offering advice on topics from how to live one's life to how to run the economy. The book's British tone is gently quaint and introspective, unlike typical American management consulting books. M.B.A.s who were taught to be aggressive fast may either be confused or find this book to be a good antidote. It will certainly appeal most to those who want to slow down the pace of their lives, while traveling farther. (Feb.)
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Review

“Charles Handy is a true statesman in the field . . . a wizened dean of faculty for the world of independent thinkers.”
–Jim Collins, author of Good to Great --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM/American Management Association (February 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814401732
• ISBN-13: 978-0814401736
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating more human organizations. Handy tells us how., June 12, 2008

By 

P. A. Dourado "Phil Dourado" (Bloxham, Oxfordshire, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Myself And Other More Important Matters (Paperback)

Where other gurus offer glib answers and seem overly ego-driven, Handy has always specialised in helping us question what our organizations are for; how best to structure them; how work fits into life and what our driving purpose is.

Handy is the author of The Empty Raincoat, The Elephant and The Flea, The Age of Paradox, 21 Ideas For Managers, and other books that help us stop, think and analyze exactly what it is we are doing at work and what we are for.

Myself and Other Important Matters is Handy's autobiography so far. It is a pleasure to read, and you learn about leadership, work, management, life, parenting, yourself, while you are enjoying reading it.

There is a growing consensus now that, after decades of process improvements, what people are looking for in the organizations they work for, invest in, lead and buy from is organizations that act more like people and less like machines. It is time for the more human organization to emerge. Handy has been teaching us this for years.

My own area of interest is business leadership. This book is full of insights into organizations, their culture and how to lead, such as "Great leaders seem to live with a mix of humility and confidence, which includes the ability to admit on occasion they were wrong."

From McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y to Aristotle's definition of happiness or 'eudaimonia' meaning to flourish and be fulfilled - challenging the prevailing assumption in the west that hedonism is happiness - to how Johari windows work, the learning you pick up almost in passing from Handy is rich and deep and enjoyable.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, thought provoking retrospective, April 20, 2008

By 

W. O'Day - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Myself and Other Important Matters (Hardcover)

Charles Handy's autobiography is a beautifully written retrospective on a fascinating life. By sharing some of his experiences you get a wonderful perspective on what he thinks is important in life; family, friends and doing things you are passionate about. It was a thoroughly engaging read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charles Handy, Guru, September 1, 2009

By 

John W. Pearson "John Pearson Associates" (San Clemente, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Myself and Other Important Matters (Hardcover)

Absolutely fascinating. Charles Handy, often called the "Peter Drucker of the United Kingdom," (though he's much more than that) has penned a page-turner autobiography. If you're over 50, it's must-reading. In between his short, crisp management meanderings, he dispenses wisdom on the "portfolio" life--why your middle and later years might be better invested on your own versus at the whims of an organization. (Attention all wanna-be consultants!)

Under 50? Then I'd suggest it's required reading. You'll be shocked--and educated--when you discover that Britain had no books on management in the 1950s (none). And no business schools until he co-founded the London Business School in 1967 (after a year at MIT's Sloan). "Business...was long seen by the British as a lower status occupation, definitely inferior to the armed services." His thoughts about America, flavored with his peculiar "cultural Christian" insights (his father was a Church of Ireland minister) will intrigue you.

While paradigm-changing concepts like the shamrock organization, the sigmoid curve, "doughnuts," and the "portfolio worker" elevated him to management guru status, his humility is remarkable. He said that Drucker "once quipped that journalists only came up with the word [guru] because `charlatan' was too long for a headline."

Handy's written 14 books, including his classics Understanding Organizations, The Future of Work, Gods of Management, and The Age of Unreason. While this book is autobiographical, his professor/consultant bent pops out on every page. His early employer, Shell, became big fans of Douglas McGregor's 1960 book, The Human Side of Enterprise. Of McGregor's two styles of leadership, Theory X (people need to be told what to do) and Theory Y (people can act responsibly on their own initiative), Shell decreed that "they would be a Theory Y organization, unaware, presumably, of the confusion they caused by using Theory X to implement Theory Y. Old habits die hard." That's just one anecdote in a feast of memorable management stories, with wisdom and dry wit thrown in at no extra charge.

I can't resist adding one more. Later in life, he limited his speaking engagements to five per year for fees and five for expenses only (never in the summer). Handy's wife, Elizabeth, handled his bookings. When asked to speak in Calcutta for the British Council, the proposed fee was minimal. "Pay him nothing," Elizabeth suggested. "But you must have all the right connections, so could you arrange for us to have an hour alone with each of the four most interesting people in Calcutta?" The result?

"So it was that we met privately and personally with the chief minister, who turned out to be a jovial Marxist, with Mother Teresa, surrounded by her nuns, the vice-chancellor of the university and a prominent local artist. Money can't buy that kind of experience."