Managing People for the First Time

Managing People for the First Time
Author: Julie Lewthwaite
Price: £12.99
Pages: 333
Publisher: Thorogood Publishing
ISBN: 185418332X

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Managing people is a role many aspire to and, as observers, believe they are experts in. That is until they become managers and the realisation dawns that managing people requires a wide range of skills, most of which are not innate and need to be developed. This practical book aims to provide a broad-based introduction to the skills required for first-time people managers.

The book is aimed at people working in small manufacturing, retail or service organisations and tackles a wide range of subjects from negotiations, presentations and stress management to recruitment and selection, delegation and team building.

The book is over-ambitious, as it covers a wide range of topics, and inevitably cannot explore anything in sufficient detail. Bearing in mind its target audience, it provides an adequate general introduction to management. The guidance is rather general and may not be technical or detailed enough for a manager working in a large organisation or a professional services environment.

The book is broken up using several devices – assessment exercises comprising suspiciously clear-cut questionnaires reaching conclusions from relatively little data, short scenarios of discussions between a first-time manager and others, and a summary at the end of each chapter. While the questionnaires and discussions are, at times, clumsy and over-simplified, they do make it more readable.

However, for a new manager, the book will raise awareness of the skills needed to manage people, which can then be researched in more detail as the individual develops.

Useful? 3 out of 5

Well-written? 3 out of 5

Practical? 3 out of 5

Inspirational? 2 out of 5

Value for money? 2 out of 5

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Overall 3 out of 5

Reviewed by Corinne Goddard, project manager, change management, Co-operative Financial Services