MANAGING THE PEOPLE BUSINESS

It is generally considered that the success of a company relies heavily on the performance of its human resources managers, who sometimes have a somewhat less than enthusiastic audience or any set of admirers!

Michael Armstrong’s practical guide to managing people quashes some of the myths about people management, and provides an invaluable insight into the main issues which arise for front-line management including: leadership; motivating people; team building; delegating; interviewing; managing performance; developing and rewarding people; managing change; and handling people problems.

Each of these key topics can be the subject of ‘management-style’ books but Armstrong gives up his secrets on people management in 12 definitive chapters, and some useful references which could be a bit more detailed and web friendly.

Armstrong concludes that people often leave their managers, and not their organisations, for many reasons mainly connected to relationships and career development. Whilst a business has progressive policies (often forced on it by government), the practical application is in the hands of both HR and line management to perform the difficult tasks. Armstrong succeeds in his aim of showing managers how to explain to staff what they are expected to do with their responsibilities. He covers the main actions that managers have to carry out to get things done through people very effectively, and the advice to frontline managers is well contained in this easy and practical guidebook.

The book will get you the best results but remember that to manage people, “managers have largely to do it themselves”. How right he is - we all know about the ‘buck-passers’! The distillation of Michael Armstrong’s knowledge and experience for managers has not really changed in the 30 years since I became a manager, and he gives us great advice on managing the people business which is very relevant for the technological challenges of today’s world. ( )