Executive Times

 

 

 

 

 

2006 Book Reviews

 

Your Management Sucks by Mark Stevens

Rating:

**

 

(Mildly Recommended)

 

 

 

Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com

 

 

 

Punchy

 

Mark Stevens’ new book, Your Management Sucks, reprises the spirited attitude and punchy style readers would expect from an author who grew up in Queens. In his earlier book, Your Marketing Sucks, Stevens ranted about weak marketing practices. In the latest missive, he tackles all managers. I had the same concern here as I did with his last book: he’s long on examples and on an “in your face” writing style, but wise readers will be hard pressed to act based on his advice, which is not supported by any facts. Here’s an excerpt, from the beginning of Chapter 3, “Take a Good Look in the Mirror … Do You See a Leader?,” pp. 104-107:

 

Are you a leader? Do you think of yourself this way? Do the people who work for you?

Before you answer, allow me to make a statement that I have found to be true throughout the course of my business career: Unless you are a leader, you cannot be an effective manager. An inspired manager. The kind of person who drives people to achieve more than they would if you were not standing in front of them (as well as by their side).

Now let’s delve into this issue a bit more. What if your business card has a leadership title: Supply chain manager. Director of human resources. Marketing coordinator.

All sound as if you are leading something. Ostensibly, you are fusing employees and vendors around the achieve­ment of strategic and tactical initiatives. It doesn’t matter if you have one person reporting to you or a small army, if your budget is $10,000 or $100 million—to get the job done, you have to lead. But having the title hardly assures that you are leading. It’s just words on a piece of paper. Leadership is expressed in thinking and doing by applying your personal philosophy to the team you manage.

 

At this point, you may be thinking, “I’m very busy. Without me, this business unit would not get the job done.

In fact, it would be in terrible straits. So I must be the leader in action as well as words.”

Not necessarily. Being busy and leading are vastly differ­ent. Sure, they may converge, but being busy is hardly the acid test of leadership.

 

And if your business unit cannot get the job done unless you are on the premises, that is generally a reliable indication that something is amiss in your leadership skill.

 

Strong leaders (and, in turn, exceptional managers) establish a compass for their people to pursue in the course of their work and provide the motivation to exceed established goals.

Can you honestly say you do this? Are you proud of the way your people take the hill? Are you confident that they can get the job done—any job—in a way that elevates your busi­ness unit to new levels of success? Or is it just the opposite? If so, you cannot take it out on them. You have just looked in the virtual mirror and come to the realization (perhaps grudgingly) that you are not as good a leader as you can be.

 

The time has come to change that. To declare war on yourself. The question is, if you are not a born leader, how can you develop the skills that are essential for extraordi­nary management?

 

One thing is certain: Holding a mirror to other people— even those you greatly admire—is not the way to do it. Here’s why. As a manager (of your life, as well as your career, your business unit), you’ve probably looked to emulate role models such as Jack Welch, Carly Fiorina, Bill Gates, War­ren Buffett, and the superstar VP two offices down from yours, whose place in the hierarchy keeps soaring along with the success of her business unit. There’s certainly a rich pan­theon of managerial poster people to worship: the patrician Ivy League executive. . . the street-smart, hard-boiled, self-made entrepreneur . . . the everybody-loves-me consensus builder . . . and lest we forget, the deep, analytical, I-don’t-talk-to-anybody-just-get-the-results type leader. And if you are so inclined, you can emulate them all.

It’s only natural to want to imitate the stars. To swing a golf club like Ernie Els. To play hoops with the style and swagger of Michael Jordan. To conduct a sales meeting with the electric panache of Steve Jobs. The media encourages this emulation by informing you in colorful detail how these role models make the seas part, earn their place among the managerial elite, and reap harvests of wealth in the process. Surely you’ve come across managerial profiles filled with all the details you need to try on their personalities, their MOs, like colorful masks at Mardi Gras. You’re tempted to do it. Even if these people are cold, driven, cavalier, pompous, and insensitive, the message is that they have the right stuff to make it, and that if you read carefully, you will learn how they do it. And you will be able to imitate them, armed and dangerous.

Completely understandable. And the worst damn thing you can do as a manager.

Because you can’t pick a persona and make it your own. You can certainly learn from successful business leaders. But you can’t copy them. If you try, you’ll be dazed and confused. A successful manager needs to wake up in the morning and be himself instead of assuming a role that’s in­consistent with his personality. His DNA. Sure, I’m advocat­ing that you declare war on yourself, but not to dress in someone else’s clothes. Instead, you should keep striving for the full potential that is reflected in who you are and can be. If you have been blinded by the hype surrounding the role-model stars, it’s time to transition from followership to leadership.

Recently, my company was called on to compete for a major client in the fiber-optics industry. Before flying out for a beauty contest, the prospective client’s COO called to prep the key members of my team, focusing on the person­alities of the executives we would meet at the company’s headquarters when we arrived to make our presentation.

As the COO talked on and on, my radar was telling me that he wanted us to morph our personalities into a multi­colored persona that would be acceptable to the eclectic group we would be facing in his company’s boardroom. In theory, a good idea. In practice, a prescription for disaster.

 

If you want to carry around a book that will be noticed by others because of its inflammatory title, by all means pick up Your Management Sucks. You’ll be entertained by Stevens’ stories and examples. If you want to prove your independence, buy a copy of this book for your boss. If you want to improve your managerial skills, look elsewhere.

 

Steve Hopkins, August 25, 2006

 

 

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*    2006 Hopkins and Company, LLC

 

The recommendation rating for this book appeared

 in the September 2006 issue of Executive Times

 

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