The New Supervisor: How To Thrive In Your First Year As A Manager, Fifth Edition (Paperback)

~ (Author), Carol Broadwell Dietrich (Contributor) "Supervising others can be fully understood only by those who do it..." (more)
Key Phrases: disciplinary interview, new supervisor

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The New Supervisor: How to Thrive in Your First Year as a Manager, by long-time management trainer Martin Broadwell and his daughter Carol Broadwell Dietrich, clearly and practically addresses many of the key issues of concern to anyone thrust into his or her very first position of corporate responsibility with little real training and no true guidance. Now in its fifth edition, this book offers specifics on dealing with bosses and subordinates, getting work started and completed, solving problems, and planning for the future. New information has been added on stress management, delegation, and team building. --Howard Rothman

Product Description

Martin Broadwell has dominated the field of management training for over 30 years. Now, teamed up with his daughter, Broadwell presents a new edition of his handy management guide, updated and expanded to reflect the management issues of the '90s.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 5 edition (May 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201339927
• ISBN-13: 978-0201339925
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #424,709 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY USEFUL FOR THOSE JUST GETTING INTO THE ROLE & OTHERS., April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This book is loaded with practical advise covering a very broad range of key areas including: power; relating with subordinates, superior and peers; managing stress; communications; planning and organizing; directing and controlling; delegation; motivating by enriching the job; interviewing; training; meeting leadership; problem solving; making presentations; team-building; and self-development. There are helpful chapter summaries and exercises. This is a highly useful work, especially for those just getting into the role and also of value to more seasoned supervisors. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Is this the kind of supervisor you want to be?, June 9, 2001

By A Customer

This book offers a very cliched, narrow vision of supervising people that emphasizes power over teamwork, delegation over coordination. Other advice is very commonsensical - "Make to-do lists," etc. It is not a sophisticated analysis, but rather, the transcript of a superficial one-day workshop.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comment on "The New Supervisor", February 20, 2004

By	Wong Mei Yung, Fiona from Marketing Departmen... (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

If you are a new supervisor or will be promoted as a supervisor in near future, you may find this book ¡§The New Supervisor¡¨ is useful for you.

This book covered a wide range of areas that a new supervisor needs to concern and make notice, including: a new attitude toward the job, the subordinate, and the boss; supervisors¡¦ relations with their coordinates; stress management, effective communications; planning and organizing; directing and controlling; delegation; motivation; interviewing; training; good meeting; problem solving; presentations; team building; and self development. The author gives advices on each area and there are chapter summaries provided which recap the important points for the readers.

The most important thing for the new supervisors is that they need to understand their new role; they have to supervise their subordinates to achieve the goals instead of doing the job themselves. They need to trust their subordinates¡¦ abilities and motivate them to do the job. Therefore, appropriate level of delegation and motivation is good. They also need to trust their boss and share the burden with their boss and remember not to create any extra problems to their boss. Treat the boss as the way you want the subordinates to treat you. It is a good guideline for the new supervisors to think of.

The new supervisors also need to keep good relations with supervisors in different departments and have an effective communications among them. They should work cooperatively to achieve the common goals. This can help to facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of the work in an organization.
There are some important skills that are required for the new supervisors such as leadership skill, interviewing skill, and problem solving skill. They are all included in this book.

Although I¡¦m not a new supervisor, this book still provides some insights to me. This book enhances my knowledge about what a supervisor needs to do and his roles. Moreover, I think some of the contents of this book are useful for all people and not only for new supervisors. For example, the six principles for handling stress mentioned in this book are useful for all people including me because everyone would be under stress in facing this challenging and highly competitive world. In addition, problem solving skill is also useful to me, the author mentioned eight steps to solve a problem, including 1) identify the problem 2) search useful information 3) find out the origin of the problem 4) list out all possible alternatives 5) choose the best solution 6) apply the solution to the problem 7) mark down the results 8) see whether the problem is really solved. I would try to use this problem solving skill when I face problems.

Since I¡¦m a university student, and most of my coursework are in a team base, the chapter that about the team building is also quite useful to me. The author suggests some criteria for developing a successful team and what the team members should do in a team. All these give me insights about how to be a good team player and how the team can work more efficiently and effectively.

The last chapter of this book, self-development and evaluation also gives me some insights for my personal development and understand myself better.

If you are a new supervisor, this is a useful book for guiding you. However, if you are not a new supervisor, you can still get some benefits through reading this book.