A Guide to Managing Earthlings

The author makes one last attempt to save the planet from old-style, jerk bosses. Combining his years of IBM management training with some critically important management templates, he takes you through real life situations in a narrative style. Spiced throughout the book are bold-type statements that all begin: "Here's the Rule:" The most critical rule is for managers to focus on WHAT vs. HOW. Real executives know "what" to do. Annoying bosses focus on personalities and "how" people are acting. Crossing the bridge from the annoying world of "how" management to the productive world of "what" management takes a bit of education and lots of examples. This is one of the few books not written by a professor or someone like the CEO of GE. If you're running GE read Jack Welch's book. If you're stuck here on planet Earth, managing humans, you will help yourself more by reading Charles' book. Charles predicts that college professors will read A Guide to Managing Earthlings, steal a phrase or two and make a whole, repetitive book out of it - much like the ones he had to read when he was a manager. It is possible that if you apply the postulates of this book to the organization you run, you may never have to fire another person. That doesn't mean you focus on being a sweetheart - that'll destroy your authority. But it does mean you can be demanding without being a jerk. It is better to be respected first. You can't be respected if you don't know what you're doing. The sad thing is, most managers have no training and therefore no way of forming a basis to determine truly good management. A Guide to Managing Earthlings makes up for the fact that most companies don' have a management culture. It's a book that will create the basis for such a culture and success in business will follow.It's an enjoyable book to read, even if you don't plan to manage Earthlings or anyone else.