The Manager’s Handbook: Five Simple Steps to Build a Team, Stay Focused, Make Better Decisions, and Crush Your Competition
David Dodson  
Wiley (July 2023)

Why and how some people are much better than others at high-impact management

In his uncommonly informative Introduction, David Dodson what he learned from several years of wide and deep research to answer a nagging question: “Why are some people better than others at getting things done?” He discovered that “what united all great managers was their mastery of a set of five common skills. Their personality attributes varied, but their command of these skills did not. It is universal. There are no exceptions.”

He discussed all this with a friend, Michael Porter, the HBS professor and author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles on various business subjects, including high-impact management. He told Dodson that he had incorrectly reduced the five skills to a checklist. “To have a chance at greatness, one has to recognize that they function as a set of united subskills.”  For example, in order to create an effective [begin italics] operating plan [end italics], one needs to have identified the [begin italics] key performance indicators [end italics] that drive the business.” When quoting Porter, Dodson makes two key points. First,  the five common skills are separate but independent. Second,  each of the five is also interdependent with its related subskills . In this context, I am again reminded of one of Saint Paul’s first letters to Corinth in which he discussed his concept of “many parts, one body.”

These are the five skills:

1. Commitment to Building a Team
2. Setting and Adhering to Priorities
3. Fanatical Custodian of Time
4. Willingness to Seek and Take Advice
5. An Obsession with Quality

Dodson: “This is the unique insight of The Manager’s Handbook: identify the primary skills necessary to run something; break them down into a combined set of subskills that can be mastered by just about anyone; and present them in a format designed for busy people.” Dodson succeeds brilliantly.

I commend him on his skillful use of reader-friendly devices such as checklists, bullet points, sequential procedures, and sets of questions that invite the reader to interact with key points and relevant options when making decisions or solving problems. He adds “A Final Thought” near the conclusion of most chapters. Dodson has created “a book to use, not just to read. It is the book I wish someone had handed to me when I first became a manager.”

These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Dodson’s coverage.

o Introduction (Pages 1-7)
o Hire for Outcomes (28-30)
o The 100 Day Window (38)
o Instant Performance Feedback (46)
o Coaching Underperformance (64-66)

o Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (75-83)
o Activity Is Not Progress (103-104)
o Make Your Day to Make Your Month (115-116)
o Curing the Digital Disaster (124)
o Seven Steps to Running a Great Meeting (133)

o Delegating (142)
o Five Questions to Ask Employees, Customers, Suppliers, and Competitors (151-152)
o Finding and Using Mentors (158)o Executive Coaching (165)
o A Board of Advisors (176)
o Key Performance Indicators (185)

o The Operating Plan (192)
o AlignmentThrough Compensation (203)
o Quality Drives Profits (214)
o The Lake Wobegon Effect (216-219)
o Implementing the Five Must-Have Skills from the People Who Get Things Done (237-239)

In my opinion, those who will derive the greatest benefit from this book include executives with direct reports entrusted to their care, those and all other direct reports, ambitious middle managers, owners/CEOs of small businesses, and finally, those who are now preparing for a career in business or have only recently embarked upon one.

Here are two concluding suggestions: Highlight key passages, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand while reading The Manager’s Handbook in which you record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines) and page references as well as your responses to questions or issues suggested by the material. These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.