Book ~ "Managing for People Who Hate Managing: Be a Success By Being Yourself" (2012) Devora Zack

From Goodreads ~ Professional success, more often than not, means becoming a manager. Yet nobody prepared you for having to deal with messy tidbits like emotions, conflicts, and personalities—all while achieving ever-greater goals and meeting ever-looming deadlines. Not exactly what you had in mind, is it?

Don’t panic. Devora Zack has the tools to help you succeed and even thrive as a manager. Drawing on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Zack introduces two primary management styles—thinkers and feelers—and guides you in developing a management style that fits who you really are.

She takes you through a host of potentially difficult situations, showing how this new way of understanding yourself and others makes managing less of a stumble in the dark and more of a walk in the park. Her enlightening examples, helpful exercises, and lifesaving tips make this book the new go-to guide for all those managers looking to love their jobs again.

I  received a copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review.

As an employee, I found it interesting and enjoyed it.

According to the author, there are two reasons for managerial angst:

1. When you manage people, you have less time to do what stimulates you.
2. You've got to deal with people's stuff ... as therapist, mediator and cruise director

One of the things the author focuses on is the Thinker-Feeler continuum, one of the dimensions of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  There is a quiz in the book to determine if you are a feeler or a thinker.  I did the quiz assuming I was a feeler ... but I'm actually right in the middle which indicates I have a solid dose of both thinker and feeler attributes.  Apparently I can relate to and manage a range of personalities and I come equipped with a natural ability to establish rapport, build coalitions and mediate conflict.  The chapters that follow let you know how to deal with thinkers and feelers.

The author also focuses on introverts and extroverts.  I'm a combination of both.  As an educator, my style is definitely extroverted.  Plus I'm very social and love being out and about.  But I do need my Teena-time.  At times, nothing makes me happier than being all alone.

The writing style is extremely casual, not what I'd expect from such a book.  The author admits she's a feeler and that definitely comes through in her writing.