Manager's Toolkit: The 13 Skills Managers Need to Succeed

The content covered in the book touches on everything a front-line manager will need to be successful. It is not intended to be a textbook or an exhaustive treatment of the subject matter. I especially like the section on career management; most managers consider CM to be something employees do on their own. A more enlightened manager realizes that his/her own success is easily measured by the success of his/her subordinates. If you are familiar with the style & substance of the Harvard Business Review you will be comfortable with this text.

Most young managers were outstanding individual performers before promotion to management, and many get the bulk of their basic management training on the job. This concisely written, vastly informative handbook from the Harvard Business Essentials series covers the basic skills all managers need to know. Richard Luecke and Christopher Bartlett divide the book into three sections - learning the basics, reaching the next level and mastering the financial tools a manager needs - with the key topics listed at the beginning of each chapter. We say if you think of this book as the coaching you would receive from a smart, well-connected mentor, you will get an idea of its tone. It contains no esoteric or faddish advice, but solid, practical tips, presented in a way you can use right now.

If you are a new manager fresh from being an individual contributor, this is the book for you. It takes you through the key skills you will need to become an effective manager and how to move up the ranks. No, it is not a Machiavellian approach to leadership, it is a practical guide for the real world. The chapters teach you about setting goals for your team with their input. The idea is to get the team moving, but in a way aligned with the enterprise. The next two chapters are on the importance of hiring right (very, very important) and retention. Here the advice in looking for quality rather than quantity rings very true. Also, even though you do want to be careful to retain the right talent, you really do NOT want to keep everyone. Let the slackers go. Encourage them to go! The chapters on learning to delegate and time management are also good for the young manager who is likely to want to do everything him or herself (you know, as they did when they were an individual contributor) and to take on too many task because they don't want to say no. Of course, learning to delegate can really help the overbooking problem. Part II talks about managing teams (and when they are best used), appraisals & coaching, and handling problem employees. The advice on how to terminate employees is very good. That is, get familiar and square will all relevant employment laws, involve HR, and realize that if you miss anything it is likely to blow up in your face. The chapters on developing your career (remember mentor), becoming a leader, and thinking strategically are all important as your career develops. The book's emphasis on knowing yourself and what it is you really want rather than what you think others think you should want is very good advice. The last four chapters form Part III and are about the basic financial skills you will need as a manager. The book takes you through the generic outline of a budgeting process, about understanding the basics of the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. This is a NECESSARY skill. The next chapters on Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Breakeven Analysis, and Operating Leverage are very good introductions. Also, you will need to understand the Time Value of Money. It's on your business calculator. Really. A VERY good and handy guide to basic management. Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

The Manager's Toolkit, was an appropriate title for this book. This is not the kind of book that you sit down and read cover to cover over a couple of evenings and pass along to a friend. I conceptualize it more like a file cabinet that sits on my bookshelf containing files on best practices and resources for managers. The file cabinet is organized into three drawers- (1.) Learning the Basics (2.) Reaching the Next Level and (3.) Mastering the Financial Tools. As things come up in my business, I reach into the appropriate file drawer and pull out the applicable files to review on the subject. [...] The book has been useful to me in running my business in several ways over the past couple of months. In the first file drawer, Learning The Basics, I pulled out the file on Characteristics of Effective Goals to help me facilitate groups of stakeholders involved in setting goals for their organizations. I also pulled the file on Defining Job Requirements which had helpful questions to help me write a job description for a new position in my company. In the second file drawer on Reaching the Next Level the file on Managing Teams was helpful for me to better understand how managing a team requires a different management strategies than those needed for more traditional hierarchal forms of management. I also pulled the file on What is Strategy? to help me in coaching a new manager in my organization on how to develop her first strategic plan for her branch of the company. In the third file drawer, Mastering The Financial Tools, I found the Tips for Setting Assumptions on pg. 229 to be helpful in coaching a manager on how to create financial projections. In the future I will probably pull different files depending on what types of management challenges I encounter. The book is laid out in a logical way with descriptive chapter titles making it easy to find what you are looking for. It is nice to know I have all of these resources at my fingertips. Senior managers may want to consider getting a copy of this book for new managers they oversee to give them a quick overview of best practices on a wide variety of topics they are likely to encounter in their new positions. The book is well worth the space it will occupy on your bookshelf in your office.

This is one of the volumes in the new Harvard Business Essentials Series. Each offers authoritative answers to the most important questions concerning its specific subject. The material in this book is drawn from a variety of sources which include the Harvard Business School Press and the Harvard Business Review as well as Harvard ManageMentor®, an online service. I strongly recommend the official Harvard Business Essentials Web site (www.elearning.hbsp.org/businesstools) which offers free interactive versions of tools, checklists, and worksheets cited in this book and other books in the Essentials series. Each volume is indeed "a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience." And each is by intent and in execution solution-oriented. Although I think those who have only recently embarked on a business career will derive the greatest benefit, the material is well-worth a periodic review by senior-level executives. Credit Richard Luecke with pulling together a wealth of information and counsel from various sources. He is also the author of several other books in the Essentials series. In this instance, he was assisted by a subject advisor, Christopher Bartlett, the Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Together, they have carefully organized the material as follows. Part I "addresses five basic but essential skills needed to build the the foundation of a powerful and high-performing manager" (e.g. setting goals that others will pursue). Part II moves on to more challenging skills (e.g. creating and supervising effective team-based initiatives). Then in Part III, Luecke and Bartlett focus on the specific financial tools that every mid- to higher-level manager should understand and learn to apply (e.g. budgeting, the ability to read and interpret financial statements, net present analysis and internal rate of return). I also urge readers to pay close attention to the "For Further Reading" section which can be found at the end of this book. In it, they are provided with references to recent books and articles -- many of them "classics" -- which offer additional material and unique insights into the various topics covered in the previous 16 chapters. I especially appreciate the "Key Topics Covered in This Chapter" and "Summing Up" sections which precede and follow each of the chapters. Luecke and Bartlett are to be commended for covering such a wide range of subjects and for doing so in depth. For most executives as well as for those now embarked on preparation for a career in business, this may well prove to be the single most valuable volume in the Harvard Business Essentials Series.