Customer Reviews

Supervising and Managing People (First Book for Business)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I rated this book higher than my fellow reviewers, and I think it's probably because I didn't have expectations as high as theirs seemed to be. In my opinion, it's more useful for a new front line supervisor, not a department manager. It's exactly what it presents itself to be, that is, a FIRST book for a new supervisor. Granted, a lot of room is devoted to colorful artwork, but I didn't find that to be a detriment. It's arranged in an extremely reader-friendly manner and is chock full of real life examples. While it doesn't go into great detail in any area, it does give enough of an overview of the supervisory role to make me feel it was well worth the price. I am sure I will want more comprehensive information as I progress in my new position, but I really feel that this book gave me a good headstart. It gave me some great tips on dealing with subordinates and I found the "Red Alert" tips to be especially helpful. All in all, it does a good job of calming some of the "new supervisor jitters", which alone made it worth the time I spent reading it.

I am a first time manager and I found this to have good short introduction to most of the topics for dealing with managing a team. Many of them are obvious but it is good to put it all in one place and in a visual fashion. It does have the problem of not pointing to other places to get more detailed information.

This book covers the right topics but does not give you much if any information. Might be good as a high school business starter book. I think more effort went into the layout of clip art and photos than the content of the book. Each topic is covered in a page or two, consisting mostly of a paragraph or two of text woven around much artwork.

This book is exactly what the back cover claims it is -- "an introduction . . . for readers with no time to waste." I agree with other reviewers that it provides more visual sophistication than in-depth content. My major complaint with the artwork and format is that large blocks of black text appear on dark blue, dark green, and purple backgrounds -- a real challenge to the eyes. Yet the book is well-organized, and the range of topics touched upon is more comprehensive than any product I have seen in this price range. I buy it in quantity and give it to participants in my "Leadership for New Supervisors and Managers" seminar. It's an affordable guidebook that provides a framework for the specific "how to" details I deliver myself.