To Manage Effectively,
Understand and Manage Yourself
About the Book
Becoming an effective manager is the subject of this third stand-alone volume
in Gerald M. Weinberg's highly acclaimed series, Quality Software Management.
To be effective, managers must act congruently. That is, managers must not only
understand the concepts of good software engineering, but also practice them.
Effective managers need to know what to do, say what they will do, and act accordingly.
Their thoughts and feelings need to match their words and behaviors.
Congruence
has the sense of "fitting" —in this case, simultaneously fitting
your own needs, the needs of the other people involved, and the contextual, or
business, needs. Managers themselves must take responsibility for improving the
quality of management and for changing their own attitudes and thinking patterns
before they try to impose changes on everyone else.
As the author advises,
"If you cannot manage yourself, you have no business managing others."
This book offers practical advice on how to act and manage others congruently.
Examples, diagrams, and tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) fortify
the author's recommendations.
Topics include:
identifying
the various styles of coping, especially under stress
selecting the
best managers
understanding the role of self-esteem
and much
more.
Reviews
"Congruemt Action is about creating quality
software not through the use of methodologies, CASE tools, JAD, or other silver
bullets, but through the application of basic people skills crucial to good management.
. . . In spite of computer folks having a reputation for atrocious people and
communication skills, we'd rather read a book on ISDN communication protocols
than one on people management."
—Peter
de Jager CIO Canada
"If you care about getting
complex development projects completed on time, with high quality but without
total team burn-out, buy this book by Gerald Weinberg. Read it yourself, then
give copies to your software team, starting with their managers. . . . Highly
recommended."
—Ron Jeffries ATMUSER
"The former star programmer who now struggles with the challenges
of management will find, in Weinberg, a mentor with more than two decades of experience
helping programmers, team leaders, and managers grow in the psychological and
social dimensions of their professions. This book will probably make you think
twice about some decisions you currently make by reflex. That alone makes it worth
reading."
—Tom Adams, IEEE Software
"The fundamental concept in Congruent Action is that, besides thinking
right about software (Vol. 1: Systems Thinking) and observing the right
things (Vol. 2: First-Order Measurement), you have to be able to put your
ideas and observations into action."
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