Henry Mintzberg - Simply Managing: What Managers Do - and Can Do Better

SIMPLY MANAGING

Other Books by Henry Mintzberg

Management: Its Not What You Think

Managing

Tracking Strategies

The Flying Circus

Strategy Bites Back

Managers not MBAs

The Strategy Process

Managing Publicly

Strategy Safari

The Canadian Condition

The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning

Mintzberg on Management

Structure in Fives

Power In and Around Organizations

The Structuring of Organizations

The Nature of Managerial Work

What Managers Do And Can Do Better

HENRY MINTZBERG

Simply Managing

Copyright 2013 by Henry Mintzberg
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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-60994-923-5
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-924-2
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-925-9

2013-1

Production Management: Michael Bass Associates

Cover Design: Stephen Taylor, Heat Design

Author Photo: Owen Egan 2010

This book is written for practicing managers, about their practice of management, and for the many other people influenced by and interested in that practice. It may be especially helpful for new managers befuddled by this strange new world of managing. Simply Managing is a substantially condensed and somewhat revised version of my book Managing (2009), to focus on its essence for busy readers.

The boldface sentences summarize the key points in this book and so serve as a running commentary throughout. (There are no chapter summaries; I believe that these sentences do that job more effectively.) Use them if you are the harried manager described in . To help, here is an overview of the six chapters:

opens things up by questioning a number of common myths about managingfor example, that leadership is more important than management. This chapter is short but necessary for what follows, so please read it!

describes the relentless pressures on managersthe hectic pace, the interruptions, the disorder that has to be ordered, and more. Slow down and have a lookyou may find some surprises.

addresses the basic content of the job what managers do and why. Managing is described as happening on three planes: through information, with people, and for action. The boldface sentences may come in especially handy here.

considers the untold varieties of managing: in different cultures; at different levels of the hierarchy; practiced as art, craft, and science; and so on. The boldface sentences can direct you to some conclusions you may not be expecting.

goes to the heart of what makes managing difficult: the conundrums that force every manager to walk on all kinds of tightropes concurrently. For example: How to connect in a job that is intrinsically disconnected? How to maintain confidence without becoming arrogant? I believe this is the most important chapter of the book: read it to face the unresolvable aspects of the job, rather than trying to resolve them.

looks at what makes managers effective. Dont expect the usual exhortations here. Appreciate, instead, that managers should be selected for their flaws as well as their strengths (and who is to know these better than the people they have managed), that the best managers often prove to be clearheaded and emotionally healthy, and more. Enough of heroic leadershipits time for engaging management!

What management is and isnt

A half century ago Peter Drucker (1954) put management on the map. Leadership has since pushed it off the map. We are now inundated with great stories about the grand successes and even grander failures of great leaders, but we have yet to come to grips with the realities of being a manager.

This is a book about managing, simply managingeven if the job is not simple. It considers the characteristics, contents, and varieties of the job, as well as the conundrums faced by managers, and how they become effective. My objective is straightforward. Managing is important for anyone affected by its practice, which means not just managers, but everyone. We all need to understand it better, in order that it be practiced better. Some of the questions addressed in the book include these:

Are managers too busy managing?

Is leadership really separate from management?

Is the Internet hindering managers as it helps them?

How are managers to connect when the very nature of their job disconnects them from what they are managing?

Where has all the judgment gone?

For years I have been asking groups of people in this job, What happened the day you became a manager? Were you offered any guidance at all? The response has almost always been the same: puzzled looks, then shrugs. You are supposed to figure it out for yourself, like sex, I suppose, usually with equally embarrassing initial consequences. Yesterday you were playing the flute or doing surgery; today you find yourself managing people who are doing these things. Everything has changed, yet you are on your own, confused and overwhelmed. This book is meant to help, not by offering easy answersthere are nonebut by encouraging deeper understanding.