Practical Ways to Manage Yourself: Modern Management Made Easy, Book 1

by Johanna Rothman

You can become an excellent manager when you manage yourself first. If you’re like most managers, you’ve never seen management excellence. You are not alone. Modern management requires we first manage ourselves—and that might be the most challenging part of management. Based on research and backed up by personal stories, you'll see how you can manage yourself. Through questions, stories, and proven options, learn how you • Move from expert to coach. • Recognize and avoid micromanagement. • Support the people doing the work to solve more of their problems. • Make time to think so you can be your best self. • Trust the people you lead and serve. • And, much more. With its question and myth, each chapter offers you options to rethink how you manage yourself. Become a modern manager. Learn to manage yourself so you and the people you lead and serve can deliver the results everyone needs.

Genres: Management, Leadership

172 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2020

About the author

People know me as the “Pragmatic Manager.” I offer frank, practical advice for your challenging product development problems.

I help leaders and teams see their current reality. Because one size never fits all, we explore options for what and how to change. The results? Leaders and teams learn to collaborate and focus on outcomes that matter.

My clients and readers appreciate both my trademark practicality and humor. I've written 21 books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of blog posts. See all my writing and monthly newsletters at www.jrothman.com and www.createadaptablelife.com.

I write in all genres except for horror because I need my sleep, and horror gives me nightmares. My short fiction has appeared in Pulphouse Magazine, Fiction River, and Heart’s Kiss in addition to several other anthologies.

Reviews

[Florian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content is not what I expected, I would have thought Managing yourself means how to set goals for yourself, how to organise yourself and similar aspects. Probably a bit like Peter Drucker's Managing Oneself. But it's actually a book about managing other people. That being said, this is also very useful for me and the content is excellent. Contains lots of good information how to think about management, with servant leadership, the idea that the manager serves the team, as the foundation.

Each chapter highlights a different aspect of management work, including one or more examples, often in the form of dialogues. I think everyone will have some takeaways.

Initially I was a bit concerned when I learned that the content is based on blog posts but it's very coherent and the chapters are a lot more detailed than a single post would be.

Looking forward to reading book two.

[Ricardo Shimoda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I was a little deluded by the title of this book.... instead of "Practical Ways to Manage Yourself" - it should be something more like: "Practical Ways to Manage Yourself when acting as a manager of other people".

OK, the subtitle makes it explicit that this is not a book about individual/solo projects, but yet, about dealing with meetings, uncertainty, feelings, and all the behaviors managers should have. If only I had read this book several years ago... before I decided to go full technical again.

Anyways, this is definitely for any manager who feels as if their professional life is spinning out of control and that their behaviors are not getting the team / company / project to a desired place.

Some of the concepts are definitely applicable to oneself and this is also applicable if you're a member of the team - how to value more your time with your manager and how to create this partnership so important for the company and for one's own career

[Joe Astolfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johanna does it again! With a mix of storytelling, references, and pragmatism, she provides wisdom for new and seasoned managers to apply in our work for better results. I appreciate the candor and humor Johanna uses in her approach to situations. She doesn't sugar-coat the complexity of work, often using herself as the example, and leading the reader to marvel that she actually used that "straight talk" with her boss. As Johanna illustrates, without coherence, trust, and clarity of purpose, our organizations descend into waste and chaos. She provides ways you can improve yourself, so that you can directly and respectfully confront the issues you see to help your people be more successful.

[Marius Colacioiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoying this book, as a new senior manager of a team that is growing fast, I get plenty of ideas on how to be a congruent manager, create the environment for a team to grow, learn and succeed together. It's a fun and enjoying journey, and the book is full of good advices, examples. I really enjoy the "myth" conversations at the beginning of each chapter, makes reading the book much more real. Messages are conveyed at a different level this way. Will share this book with my junior managers, will be a good guide for them too. Highly recommended!

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the first part of this series the best. It has some great insights on how to manage yourself and to focus your and your teams work in an area that matters for the company. Sometimes the examples are great, sometimes they look like a far stretch to prove a point. Nevertheless, a helpful book you should read when you manage people.

[Jack Vinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

And my longer blog post on the topic: https://www.jackvinson.com/blog/2021/...

[Swimmer Runner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of practical advice to daily managers routine.