Managers have a wide range of responsibilities, many of which include maximising the efficiency of their own time and work processes and ensuring that the people they manage are equipped with everything they need to function effectively and be productive and happy at work. This book covers many of the areas that a manager will need to be proficient in if they are to be successful at their job. There are chapters on communicating, time management, decision making, delegation, making presentations, interviewing, managing change and minimising stress, for example.

The emphasis is definitely on the practical, with real-life results always at the top of the agenda. To that end the text is punchy and to the point rather than rambling. Each chapter is clearly presented with plenty of tables, charts, checklists and self questionnaires to help you get the most from its content. Dotted around the pages you will find Power Tips--over 1200 of them in all-- designed to act as quick reference aids.

Some managers might only need to look at one or two of the areas covered in the book, and so Dorling Kindersley have published all 12 of the book's chapters individually in smaller pocketable handbooks. --Sandra Vogel

2005-02-03 Essential?! Bah! Basic mgmt for idiots!

This book is probably what you would need when you start EXTREMELY fresh in your career. Advises like "you should look at your colleague when you speak to her" add no value. And the book is filled with no added values... Some articles are even contradictory to what you would expect to find in a modern management handbook. If you are not sure of yourself, you might take some well meant but wrong advises seriously, and act wrongly.

I suggest that you skip this book and shop around for other books instead.