[...]... people, how to assess your own performance, how to be authoritative, how to be decisive, how to develop your emotional intelligence, how to handle difficult people, how to be interviewed, how to get job engagement, how to manage stress, how to network and how to prioritize The book therefore covers a wide range of the skills and approaches used by effective managers – what they need to understand and be. .. ways of’ xvi 1 How to be a better manager Better managers recognize that the art of management is something they need to learn No one becomes a fully competent manager overnight There are, of course, many ways of learning how to be a competent manager There is no doubt that experience is the best teacher – the time you have spent as a manager or team leader and your analysis of how good managers you come... Sudden demands are imposed upon them 7 How to be an Even Better Manager 3 4 5 6 from other people within the organization or from outside Crises can occur which they are unable to predict Managers are expected to be decisive and deal with situations as they arise Their best-laid plans are therefore often disrupted; their established priorities have to be abandoned Managers are subject to the beck and call... activities, and intuitive, judgemental activities It is therefore both science and art 5 How to be an Even Better Manager Managers carry out their work on a day -to- day basis in conditions of variety, turbulence and unpredictability A single word to describe all these features would be chaos Tom Peters (1988), however, has suggested that it is possible for managers to thrive on chaos Managers also have to be. .. ‘participating’ WHAT MANAGERS CAN DO ABOUT IT To a degree, managers have simply to put up with the circumstances in which they work as described above – they have to manage in conditions of turbulence, uncertainty and ambiguity That is why one of the characteristics of effective managers is their resilience – they have to be able to cope with these inevitable 9 How to be an Even Better Manager pressures... However, managers are there to achieve results To do this they have to deal with events and eventualities They may do this primarily through people, but an over-emphasis on the people content of management diverts attention from the fact that in managing events managers have to be personally involved They manage themselves as well as other people They cannot delegate 2 How to be a Better Manager everything... which have been proved to be generally effective But they have to be adapted to suit your own style of managing and the circumstances where their application is required To become a better manager it is necessary to develop each of the 50 areas of skills and knowledge covered by this handbook But you will be better prepared to do this if you have a general understanding of the process of management... desire and capacity to foster the development of members of his or her team, providing feedback, support, encouragement and coaching 11 How to be an Even Better Manager ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Flexibility The ability to adapt to and work effectively in different situations and to carry out a variety of tasks Leadership The capacity to inspire individuals to give of their best to achieve a desired result and to maintain... done – planning ahead, maintaining momentum and making things happen; finding out what is going on; reacting to new situations and problems; responding to demands and requests They involve a great deal of interpersonal relations, communicating, information processing and decision-making 6 How to be a Better Manager THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP Managers have to be leaders and leaders... guidance from a good manager and from other sources such as this book which will help us to interpret our experience, learn from our mistakes and make better use of our experience in the future 12 How to be a Better Manager What you can do Perhaps Francis Bacon provided the best answer to this question when he wrote: ‘Studies perfect nature and are perfected by experience.’ The art of management, and . ARMSTRONG London and Sterling, VA EVEN BETTER MANAGER HOW TO BE AN HTB An Even Better Manager TP 30/11/2004 12:18 Page 1 Masculine pronouns have been used in. in Great Britain in 1983, entitled How to be a Better Manager Second edition, 1988, entitled How to be an Even Better Manager Third edition 1990 Fourth edition