Simply Managing: What Managers Do # and Can Do Better

The Essence of Managing

Henry Mintzberg appreciates that managers are busy people. So he has taken his classic book Managing, done some updating, and distilled its essence into a lean 176 pages of text.

The essence of the book remains the same: what Mintzberg learned from observing twenty-nine managers in settings ranging from a refugee camp to a symphony orchestra. Simply Managing considers the intense dynamics of this job as well as its inescapable conundrums, for example:

• How is anyone supposed to think, let alone think ahead, in this frenetic job?
• Are leaders really more important than managers?
• Where has all the judgment gone?
• Is email destroying management practice?
• How can managers connect when their job disconnects them from what they are managing?

If you read only one book about managing, this should be it!

Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University and a founding partner of CoachingOurselves.com. He has won awards from many prestigious academic and practitioner institutions in management and is the author or coauthor of sixteen books. His next project is a series of electronic pamphlets entitled Rebalancing Society: Radical Renewal beyond Left, Right, and Center (see www.mintzberg.org).

Welcome to Simply Managing
1--Managing Beyond the Myths
What management is and isn’t
Leadership versus communityship
Management as a practice, not a profession
Managing’s not changing
2--Managing Relentlessly
The pressures of managerial work
The pace, the action, the interruptions
Soft communicating
Managing across, not just “down”
Managing as controlled disorder
Managing the Internet
3--Managing Information, People, Action
A model of managing
Controlling and communicating
Leading and linking
Doing and dealing
Well-rounded managing
4--Managing Every Which Way
The untold varieties of managing
In culture, sector, industry, and organization
At the top, middle, and bottom
As an art, craft, and science
Postures of managing
Managing beyond the manager
5--Managing on Tightropes
The inescapable conundrums of managing
The syndrome of superficiality
The dilemma of delegating
The mysteries of measuring
The clutch of confidence
The ambiguity of acting—and others
6--Managing Effectively
Getting to the essence of managing
The inevitably flawed manager
Happily and unhappily managed organizational families
A framework for effectiveness
Selecting, assessing, and developing effective managers
Managing naturally
Dedication
References
Index
About the Author