Managing

This book is similar to Management of the Absurd and takes the same premise. Managers don't have a formal learning process, but learn on the job, and that job is always localized. There are many approaches to management and each one works in the particular environment, but finding the right approach in the right place is always tricky and always dependent upon the local environment.

This is a great book for new managers or potential managers. It looks at the real face of management, the day to day perspective. It can also help decide the type of manager you are, a sort of a What Color is your Parachute for management. More experienced managers can read this book and nod their heads in agreement and wouldn't provide any more information to them.

The core of the book is my favorite part, who goes into management. Typically, it is the type of person who likes to be busy and even though the nature of management is hectic and crazy, it attracts those type of people to it. It takes someone who enjoys working with non-sense and irrational thought and putting making a work product out of it. Even though a manager deals with crazy and irrational demands, they often thrive on it (workaholics sometimes), they also must be emotionally health and level headed to deal with the level stress that comes with it. They must find their center. Overall, an excellent book on management, highly recommended.

From the book:

"It is this dynamic balance that renders futile the teaching of management in a classroom, especially one role or competency at a time. Even mastering all the competencies do not a competent manager make, because the key to this work is the blending of all of its aspects, into this dynamic balance. And that can only happen on the job, because no simulation I have ever see in a classroom--case, game, in-basket exercise--comes remotely close to replicating the job itself." p. 96

Some realizations about middle management are what I have read from other books and online such as: Who is the Real Boss (from Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/grace...), and the quote from this book:
"...middle managers are often "far better than most senior executives...at leveraging the informal network at a company that makes substantial, lasting change possible." p. 111

So in both cases, the boss sets the tone and direction, the real boss is the one that executes the idea, as in the blog post. So, in other words, as an executive, if you don't get your middle manager behind you, that person can make your plans sink very quickly.

Other passages:

Does management create the manager, or does the manager create the management?
"...is brevity, variety, and fragmentation forced on the managers, or do they choose this patter in their work? My answer is yes both times.
...they don't want to discourage the flow of information...
...managers are plagued by what they might do and what they must do...
...managers like action, not abstract or philosophy, but dealing in tangible issues or problems...

Talk is the technology of leadership--Jeanne Liedtka, Dresden School

...he must become his own director of central intelligence...Richard Neustradt

"The Managers's extensive use of such information helps to explain why they may be reluctant to delegate tasks. It is not as if they can hand a dossier over to someone; they must take the time to "dump memory" to tell that person what they know about the subject. But this could take so long that it may be easier just to do the task themselves--Damned by the Dilemma of Delegation. p. 28

Hence, managers seemed damned by the nature of their personal information system to a life of either overwork or frustration. In the first case, they do too many tasks themselves or else spend too much time disseminating oral information. In the second case, they have to look on as delegated tasks are performed inadequately, by the uninformed (relative to them). It is too common to witness people being blamed for failures that can be traced to their inadequate access to the information necessary to perform their delegated tasks. p. 175

...the frequency of requests... may be a good measure of the status a manager has established for him-herself, while the quantity of unsolicited material received may indicate the manager's success in building effective channels of communication.

The Manager's working roles:
Formal Authority and Status
Interpersonal roles: Figurehead, Leader, Liason
Informational roles: Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
Decisional Roles: Entrepreneur, Disturbance handler, Resource Allocation, Negotiator. p. 45

To become a manager is to become more dependent on others to get things done. p. 65

Every unit has to be protected, responsive, and aggressive, depending on the circumstances. p. 81

Strategies are not immaculately conceived in detached offices, so much is learned through tangible experience. p. 87

Managers off the ground don't learn and become dreadful strategists.

The more innovative the organization, the more likely are disturbances to occur unexpectedly. p. 85

Thinking is heavy, too much can wear a manager down, while acting is light, too much of that and a manager can't stay put. p. 87

When I think of the type of organization Mintzberg identifies, I imagine that running a library involves every aspect of this organization. A good manager has to be able to switch back and forth among these philosophies to keep the library centered. Circulation is like machine, librarians are like Professional, when something new is started, the Project kicks into play, the Missionary comes in since many go into libraries as something core to their being, something they are very passionate about, and political since libraries play a role in local government politics.

Types of organizations:
Entrepreneurial Organization: Centralized around a single leader who engages in considerable doing and dealing as well as strategic visioning.

Machine Organization: formally structured, with simple repetitive operating tasks (classic bureaucracy), its managers functioning in clearly delineated hierarchies of authority and engaging in a considerable amount of controlling.

The Professional Organization: comprising professionals who do the operating work largely on their own, while their managers focus more externally, on linking and dealing, to support and protect the professionals.

The Project Organization (Adhocracy): built around project teams of experts that innovate, while the senior managesr engage in linking and dealing to secure the projects, and the project managesr concentrate on leading for teamwork, doing for execution and linking to connect the different teams together.

Missionary Organization: dominated by a strong culture, with the managers emphasizing leading to enhance and sustain that culture.

Political Organization: Dominated by conflict, with the managers sometimes having to emphasize doing and dealing in the form of firefighting. ( )