Books about management can provide guidance on how to approach typical managerial circumstances. For instance, conducting interviews and employing new employees; allocating projects and teams; tracking progress; providing criticism or punishment; and managing emergencies. These books impart the technical know-how and pragmatic strategies required for managing staff and achieving desired outcomes. Business leaders can learn a thing or two from reading and may derive a business model that can have high-performing teams.
These books resemble new manager books, leadership books, books for women in leadership, coaching books, and books on employee engagement. These manuals aid in the development of first-time managers’ and teams’ management abilities which may lead to successful managers.
List of management books
Here is a selection of books that educate how to be a great manager, including suggestions for novice managers as well as how-to manuals for challenging conversations.
1. How to Think More Effectively: A guide to greater productivity, insight and creativity by Alain de Boton
How to Think More Effectively enhances cognitive processes in ways that considerably help bosses even though it does not strictly belong in the genre of business management books. This book from The School of Life shows readers how to develop constructive attitudes. Managers need to think clearly and strategically. The book How to Think More Effectively takes a thoughtful approach to mindsets and teaches readers how to become more conscious of various modes of thought.
2. Solve Employee Problems Before They Start: Resolving Conflict in the Real World by Scott Warrick
Three strategies are used in Solve Employee Problems Before They Start to reduce and mediate workplace conflicts: empathic listening, parroting, and rewarding. Scott Warrick, a conflict-resolution expert and employment law attorney, promotes an emotionally intelligent management strategy that seeks to reassure colleagues that you are aware of and care about their situation before coming up with a feasible solution. The possibility that a crisis would de-escalate rather than escalate and the likelihood that everyone will be satisfied are both improved by acknowledging and respecting employee feelings. Warrick invented a technique he calls “Verbal Jeet” that views conflict as a war that can be won with careful organization and strategy.
3. Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos by Jeff Bezos and Walter Isaacson
A tutorial on creative, advanced large-scale management, Invent and Wander compiles Jeff Bezos’ correspondence, lectures, and guiding principles. Bezos’s musings are divided into chapters of the book with headings like:
- Thinking About Finance
- Making Decisions
- Growing New Businesses
- Setting Goals
- Building a Culture of High Standards
- Thinking Three Years Out
- Work-Life Harmony
- Competition
Invent and Wander, which is both an autobiography and a self-help book, examines a variety of issues that entrepreneurs face through the prism of Jeff Bezos’ enormous enterprise and achievements. Few readers could dispute Jeff Bezos’ extensive managerial expertise, even as the book essentially compiles previously published pieces of advice, performances, and memoranda.
4. The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo
Julie Zhuo rose to the position of Facebook executive early in her career. Zhou, a mid-twenties new manager, occasionally felt overpowered by the sheer volume of knowledge she needed to acquire, the lessons she needed to learn, and the apparently never-ending inquiries she had to address. After ten years of managing teams in Silicon Valley, Zhou wrote her own manual to support newly appointed managers in feeling more at ease in their new positions of authority. The Making of a Manager addresses issues such as the traits and actions that set excellent managers apart from mediocre managers, navigating interviews, forging connections with teams, overcoming uncertainty, and remaining cool under pressure. One of the best management books for new managers is The Making of a Manager, which is written from the viewpoint of a young leader.
5. How to Be a Great Boss by Gino Wickman and René Boer
How To Be a Great Boss is a master class in employee engagement best practices, including tools and advice for winning the respect and goodwill of staff while still attaining objectives and outcomes. The book explains fundamentals like:
- How to surround yourself with great people
- How to make more effective use of your time
- How to create accountability
- How to deal with direct reports that don’t meet your expectations
Five crucial management and leadership practices are also described in the book.
By heeding the counsel offered by Wickman and Boer, managers may prevent staff detachment and disengagement, successfully delegate, unleash the true potential of teams, and develop into a beloved boss for whom employees are eager to go above and beyond.
6. It’s the Manager: Moving From Boss to Coach by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
The CEO of Gallup, a company that has been collecting information on the State of the American workplace for more than ten years, is Jim Clifton, and Jim Harter is the organization’s chief scientist. It’s the Manager identifies patterns in efficient management using data from Gallup polls. The book offers guidance on carrying out managerial functions like hiring, reviewing performance, enabling diversity, and managing other managers. It makes the claim that team leaders and managers are the factor that most reliably affects an organization’s long-term success. The book looks ahead to the near future as well as at the existing management environment in order to better educate managers for the future business environments.
7. Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager by Kory Kogon, Suzette Blakemore, James Wood
Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager addresses professionals without formal titles or designations who shape or direct work initiatives, in contrast to the majority of project management publications, which are written for official project leads. After all, everyone who contributes to a project has a stake in its success, not just the manager. The manual takes individuals willing to assume responsibility step-by-step through each phase of a project, from its conception and planning stages to its execution and workflow management, and finally to its completion and evaluation of results. Any team member may structure, plan, and complete any project with style, expertise, and competence with the assistance of Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager.
8. The Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook: The 17 Skills Leaders Need to Stand Out
This book acts as a manual for managers, as the title suggests. The Harvard Business Review Manager’s Handbook, in contrast to many other management books, draws on the expertise of a variety of specialists to provide a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of management. The book lists 17 abilities managers need to flourish and shine, along with specific situations including adjusting psychologically to the role, managing intense employee emotions, interpreting corporate strategy, creating a delegation plan, and running productive meetings.
9. 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees: A Manager’s Guide to Addressing Performance, Conduct, and Discipline Challenge by Paul Falcone
101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees focuses on the difficult conversations managers occasionally need to initiate, while many management books on communication place an emphasis on presentations or casual conversation. The book deviates into areas like dealing with poor performance or disciplinary actions, discussing subjects such:
- inappropriate appearance
- lack of technical knowledge or necessary skills
- bullying or gossip
- absence of teamwork or people skills
- laziness and underachievement
- defensiveness and excuse-making
- compensation conflicts
The book 101 Tough Talks to Have with Employees covers a wide range of difficult topics and teaches managers how to have difficult conversations in a way that benefits all parties involved. The majority of managers dislike having these conversations, but this book provides advice on how to overcome any obstacles that might come up. This book covers everything from recruiting to firing, wage concerns to employee troubles, group strife to personal problems, and breaking company rules to breaking the law.
10. The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier
In The Manager’s Path, the particular difficulties of management in the technology sector are examined. For instance, it’s necessary to have both the technological know-how to assign and analyze work and soft-skill proficiency to effectively manage personnel. In the book, management is explored in a variety of contexts, including managing other managers as well as individuals, teams, and numerous teams. Camille Fournier teaches how to meet the demands of supervisory responsibilities under the Silicon Valley philosophy of “move fast and break things” through the unique prism of startup and bootstrapping culture.
11. The First-Time Manager by Jim McCormick
The First-Time Manager is a management book for rookie managers that emphasizes the distinctions between the attitudes of a leader and a follower. The book explores subjects like:
- building trust and confidence
- showing employee appreciation
- training team members
- dealing with resistance
- delivering performance appraisals
Additionally, topics like adopting a management style, leading with appropriate humour, and handling stress are covered in The First-Time Manager. The less-discussed self-regulation and self-reflection strategies that are essential to supervisory responsibilities are covered in this book.
Conclusion
At times, navigating the complexities of management might seem overwhelming. It’s common for managers to want to appear knowledgeable to both their superiors and their staff, so they may be reluctant to seek assistance for problems that seem simple or complicated. Fortunately, managers can find the answers they seek in books, listening to the counsel of seasoned experts eager to share their knowledge with rising managers. While it is acceptable to solicit help from coworkers, these books offer managers useful references to help them lead their teams more effectively. These books can even help in personal and professional life.
