Be a Better Manager: Improve Performance, Profits, and Productivity

John Marston was a federal civil servant in Ottawa.

Michael Armstrong, the author of Be a Better Manager, has had years of experience as a manager: he spent 14 years in personnel management in the food and engineering industries, and later, as a management consultant, was involved in the varied problems of more than 100 clients. To top it all off, he is currently the general manager and executive board member of one of Britain’s largest book clubs. All of this experience has provided us with a really good “how to” book.

The book is written in the clear and understandable language of the workplace. Armstrong takes us through the many paths of management and makes the reader realize that management is a wide and responsible field. He discusses the barriers of communicating and how to overcome them; budgeting and its ramifications; appraisals and cost cutting; controlling and delegation; the development of people and leadership — these are just a sample of the many topics the author develops in a frank and understandable fashion.

In the past, the expression was “managers are born not made” — but this is a fallacy. With study and experience, management expertise can, and is, being developed in countless organizations, large and small, across the land. There is always a need for managers, from the shop floor foreman to the chairman of the board. This book provides useful and practical knowledge that can aid the new and not-so-new manager.

One is never too old to learn or too young to take advice.