Product Description

Manager's Toolkit: The 13 Skills Managers Need to Succeed

Zeroing in on the specific skills that make great managers stand out from the pack, this comprehensive guide is both an essential primer for new managers and a valuable resource for seasoned executives. From hiring and retaining good people to motivating and developing team members, from understanding key financial statements to delegating work effectively, and from setting goals for others to managing your own career, this actionable guide walks readers through every aspect of managing in a complex business world. Filled with practical tools and tips, this essential toolkit will help managers to stay at the top of their game.

The Harvard Business Essentials series is for managers at all levels but is especially relevant for new managers. It offers on-the-spot guidance, coaching, and tools on the most relevant topics in business. Each book includes the critical information that managers need on a given topic-from budgeting to hiring to communication to strategy-and offers interactive tools and worksheets that translate advice into action. Providing ready answers to day-to-day issues, these guides make sound, trusted mentoring advice available whenever managers need it.

Other Books in the HBE Series:

Managing Change and Transition

Hiring and Keeping the Best People

Finance for Managers

Business Communications

Innovation

Negotiation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187378 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

Customer Reviews

Perhaps the most valuable volume in the series....

This is one of the volumes in the new Harvard Business Essentials Series. Each offers authoritative answers to the most important questions concerning its specific subject. The material in this book is drawn from a variety of sources which include the Harvard Business School Press and the Harvard Business Review as well as Harvard ManageMentor®, an online service. I strongly recommend the official Harvard Business Essentials Web site (www.elearning.hbsp.org/businesstools) which offers free interactive versions of tools, checklists, and worksheets cited in this book and other books in the Essentials series. Each volume is indeed "a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience." And each is by intent and in execution solution-oriented. Although I think those who have only recently embarked on a business career will derive the greatest benefit, the material is well-worth a periodic review by senior-level executives.

Credit Richard Luecke with pulling together a wealth of information and counsel from various sources. He is also the author of several other books in the Essentials series. In this instance, he was assisted by a subject advisor, Christopher Bartlett, the Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Together, they have carefully organized the material as follows. Part I "addresses five basic but essential skills needed to build the the foundation of a powerful and high-performing manager" (e.g. setting goals that others will pursue). Part II moves on to more challenging skills (e.g. creating and supervising effective team-based initiatives). Then in Part III, Luecke and Bartlett focus on the specific financial tools that every mid- to higher-level manager should understand and learn to apply (e.g. budgeting, the ability to read and interpret financial statements, net present analysis and internal rate of return). I also urge readers to pay close attention to the "For Further Reading" section which can be found at the end of this book. In it, they are provided with references to recent books and articles -- many of them "classics" -- which offer additional material and unique insights into the various topics covered in the previous 16 chapters. I especially appreciate the "Key Topics Covered in This Chapter" and "Summing Up" sections which precede and follow each of the chapters.

Luecke and Bartlett are to be commended for covering such a wide range of subjects and for doing so in depth. For most executives as well as for those now embarked on preparation for a career in business, this may well prove to be the single most valuable volume in the Harvard Business Essentials Series.

Concise advice for every new manager
Most young managers were outstanding individual performers before promotion to management, and many get the bulk of their basic management training on the job. This concisely written, vastly informative handbook from the Harvard Business Essentials series covers the basic skills all managers need to know. Richard Luecke and Christopher Bartlett divide the book into three sections - learning the basics, reaching the next level and mastering the financial tools a manager needs - with the key topics listed at the beginning of each chapter. We say if you think of this book as the coaching you would receive from a smart, well-connected mentor, you will get an idea of its tone. It contains no esoteric or faddish advice, but solid, practical tips, presented in a way you can use right now.