The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Don’t Be a Dick Manager: The Down & Dirty Guide to Management by James Monroe

Don't Be a Dick Manager: The Down & Dirty Guide to Management by James Monroe Take a successful employee, promote them into management but give them no management training and there’s a very good chance you’ll create a defensive, insecure, unsuccessful, dick manager.Here is the management training you never got! This honest, straightforward guide reveals the things nobody talks about–knowledge that only comes from real-world experience in the management trenches. It will change the way you look at yourself, your job and your career and it will enable you to be a successful leader and mentor.Most importantly, it will help you avoid becoming a dick manager (or, if it’s too late, to reform) so you can enjoy the personal and financial rewards of being a great manager.Discover the power of the Laws of Management and understand the personal characteristics you must have to excel as a manager.Learn how to deal with non-communicative, mean, micromanaging, bully bosses, and how to figure out when it’s time for you to leave an impossible situation.Find out how to deal with ambitious employees and how to turn around hostile, jaded ones. And be warned about the one type of employee who must go, no matter what.Filled with anecdotes from more than 20 years of management experience, this book takes a frank look at the author’s mistakes and triumphs, his great bosses and his dick managers and the lessons learned from all of them.About James Monroe I became a manager at the age of 29. It was a big job. I had a lot of autonomy, a good-sized team and no management training whatsoever. And the moment I walked into my fancy new office, my education began. I'd been working since the age of 11 and I'd had eight bosses by then. All I knew about management was that I wanted to copy the good things I'd seen and avoid the bad. Fortunately, I had a supportive boss and a forgiving team. I made some mistakes, but I learned from them, as I have in every job since. I went on to manage teams in large media companies like CBS and NBC (while it was owned by both GE and Comcast) and in tiny Silicon Valley tech startups. I've worked in government as well as the service, consumer product, media and technology industries. Though every company was different, the great managers I knew-and there were very few of them-all had something in common: they had very specific personal characteristics that enabled them to be great. Few people are born with these characteristics, but many more can acquire them if they work at it. These are things nobody talks about, which is a shame because I wish I'd known about them much sooner. This is my attempt to help other mangers, particularly those who are early in their careers, make fewer mistakes and enjoy long, rewarding, successful management careers. This book isn't based on academic studies or on one person's unusual, one-of-a-kind experience. It's based on working in the trenches year after year, learning as I went and eventually understanding what it takes to be a great manager.