Title: The Manager Who Became an Influencer
Author: Harish Shivdasani
Publisher: Rupa
Price: Rs. 195
Pages: ix + 98
‘The Manager Who Became an influencer’, is a misleading name for the book. It is not a story about any manager but it is about steps which can turn a manager into an influencer. Apart from this everything is correct about this book.
It is a book on leading and mentoring by Harish Shivdasani, a former faculty at IIM Ahmedabad. He combines management lessons and principles of psychotherapy to provide practical, scientific and sure-fire strategies which can be used to mentor and develop teams and raise their performance levels. The book focuses on enhancing competencies and creating a relationship of trust between peers as well as superiors and subordinates. The book is about every day interactive strategies, which can inspire and boost the performance of team members.
Highlight of the book is its coverage of what people like and don’t like about change, differentiates between a consultant and a mentor, what else is needed beyond trust and importance of articulation.
If someone is looking for a crash course on leadership or is looking to freshen up his thoughts on leadership it is a good book. The book doesn’t have examples. Examples would have not only made the book thicker but also easier to understand. It has been written in simple language and has a nice flow.
The book is split into two parts. The first part is all of 30 page and second part is of 57 pages, followed by an epilogue. The book is all of 98 pages. No data, no diagram, no tables still will hold the reader. It is obvious that it does not have reference or bibliography. To sum it up, a quick and effective read on how to become a good manager.