How to be a boss

by Justin Kerr

Being a boss is about more than bossing people around. It's hard work and if you want to be good at it you have to get two things people and process. This is the follow-up to Justin Kerr's rogue corpo playbook How to write an email. Chapters 9 Ways to make your team hate you, 10 ways to make your team love you, How to lead your team, How to motivate your team, How to give feedback, How to get people promoted, How to interview someone, How to fire someone, Plus many, many more...

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Leadership

100 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2017

Reviews

[Nate Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

“How To Be A Boss” is up-front about the context it was written for: Corporate America. It was rather strange going through this book right after reading “It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work” by the Basecamp guys. That book was about improving company culture, increasing efficiency and creating better work/life balance. “How To Be A Boss” is more about being the best boss you can be as a cog in the machine, working under the assumption that your company’s culture ISN’T as healthy as it could be. There are still some great tips on leadership and being a good boss, but some of the processes Kerr recommends could be seen as wasteful or unnecessary in a company that runs at optimum efficiency. I still enjoyed the book and think it’s valuable as a piece of the puzzle for my own leadership development. I just wouldn’t take it as a final authority.

[Peter Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short read that would be worth it to any new manager or long-time leader that has a need to improve their boss-game.

In just over an hour, Kerr lays out a completely no-bullshit approach to being an effective boss. There is absolutely no fluff or fables or rambling here, just checklists and to-dos along with the reasons why to do (and not do) each.

Why and How to have meetings. How to offer feedback. How to fire someone. It's what you need to know as a manager that no one told you how to do.

I've long been looking for these types of books and recommend this one wholeheartedly.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

nicht ganz so überzeugend wie how to write an email, liegt vielleicht einfach an der eigenen funktion. und: es ist schon auch sehr auf größere unternehmen zugeschnitten (corporate america). trotzdem: viele nützlich hinweise, kurzweilig geschrieben und kann schnell gelesen werden.

[Tim Belonax · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blazed through this book. I appreciated its candor and found it helpful for mentorship and teaching.

[Zen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exactly what I expected

I think I might be using this book a lot in the future. While I didn’t realize it more for cooperate america, there are a lot of gems in this book.

[Michael Boykin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good, very simple read with very, very great advice. Will read many, many times again as I consider management, become a manager, and work on improving my skills as a manager.