The First-Time Manager

As a retired management professor, I would definitely call this reasonably-short book a thorough discussion of the issues faced by recently-promoted managers. As a reader, I would have liked to see some visual aids (i.e., charts, check-lists, etc.); and a few cartoons related to specific management situations would have improved the readability as well. As it stands, the book is thorough; but younger readers (i.e., Millennials) might find it a bit "dry."

I would suggest this book to a warehouse or allembly line manager. This is not applicable to sales and is much to basic. If you're questioning getting into management and want to see if you have the necessary thoughts and mindset maybe I would suggest this.... maybe.

Not useful, very basic. As someone who has been leading teams for a couple of years, but just started officially managing direct reports, it was not useful. The worst part was, getting this book when I was still excited about the promotion, and reading "not everyone will be happy about your promotion." Really? I returned and got something else.

The First-Time Manager by Loren B. Belker and Gary S. Topchick was a very informational book directed towards newly appointed managers. It was very insightful and provided a great deal of useful information. One of the many key points I found in the book was that a manager need not be a dictator or start out just bossing people around, rather they should be authoritative but be open and try to learn how things work before just taking control of everything. One of the major points of Manager-Employee relationships was building trust with the employees and treating them as equals rather than as lower level workers. The Manager establishes this trust by being a good listener. The amount of listening a manger does was pointed out a good bit throughout the book. One of my favorite parts on the topic of listening was this line: "These managers should remember they have two ears and one mouth; therefore they ought to do twice as much listening as talking. " This is true of any situation. Not just in the workplace. I found this book to be very informative and helpful especially in the areas of how to handle personal business in the workplace and the types of things that good managers do, such as praising employees for good deeds and insuring everyone is working together. It also gave me courage and made me feel less afraid to have to deal with things such as terminating an employee. I feel much better about having a management position from reading this book, and I will certainly be going back to read it once I am a manager to be sure I am being the best I can be for my employees, because I would like my colleagues to enjoy working for me, because an enjoyable workplace increases productivity.

When I think of management and all that it entails, I think of the many years of my participation at the Academy of Management. However, when I read this book, I found myself saying "THAT'S IT!" That is what should be taught. When I first prepared and then, eventually wrote my scholarly article on becoming a manager, I found out quickly that it is a hard sell the idea of "Becoming a Manager!" So I eventually settled for the Stainless Steel Career approach. It worked, I soon published an article with a more acceptable title for the scholarly group that I ran with "The Evolution of Management Thought: Prospects for Tomorrow's Managers." How does that story relate to this book? Well, "The First-Time Manager" by Belker captures the essence of what it takes to manage and offers the option to avoid the hassles if it is not meant for you. For many, management is key to their success and this book places the foot to the medal. Right from the start, valuable lessons can be learned! I strongly recommend this book for the aspiring manager and for those who want some straight shop talk on how to actually manage people!

Not an entertaining read, and not full of new insights I didn't already know, it does put a lot of useful information in one place.

Biggest problem: It's *terribly* written, full of malapropisms, agrammatical sentences, and cliches that the authors were so embarrassed by that they put the in quotes as if to say, "I know better than this."

It may be helpful, should I get the chance to manage people, but I won't read it again unless.

Loren addresses the tough issues facing all first time managers and supervisors...my own global research confirms the same difficulties managers face all over the world as well as ways to remedy the situations that arise. Nice job Loren et.al.

Everything works great except that I can't get it paired to my phone and neither could technical support. They said it was because I had MAC filtering configured on my router, which I don't. It was all crickets after that. Still a nice little unit.

There is not process mapping inside this book. Process mapping is a tool which could prove something like competence, or knowledge. If you can not prove your competence, then trust go away. If trust go away, then your career in management halts.

Excellent resource for new managers. This book offers a real world approach to most (all?) of the skills necessary to become an effective manager and leader. I am recommending it to my students and clients.