Myths of Management

Reviews / Votes

"This book is so true, so sensible and so snappily written, I wish I had written it myself. If every business person read it, all managerial stupidity would wither away. " * Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times * "I consider myself to be reasonably sophisticated, rather subtle in my thinking processes. Hence, I am almost horrified that I can find absolutely nothing in Myths of Management with which I disagree. Sure, I might have said this or that a bit differently, with Ban emphasis on X instead of Y. But in the end, I buy the act. You may well not go 44 for 44 in assessing the authors' arguments, but I do offer a guarantee. You will be challenged 44 times, and it's almost impossible to imagine that you will get anything other than a sky high return on investment from reading-and seriously reflecting-on virtually every page in the book. Bonus: It's fun to read, too. I suspect that you, as I, will chuckle many a time at the degree to which you've fallen into one of the traps Stefan Stern and Cary Cooper expose." * Tom Peters, World's Leading Management Guru * "Stefan and Cary have summarised all the daft things I have seen written about management into one place and then dispatched them as myths by providing great common sense insights in plain English which we can understand. For anyone wanting to manage - creating the conditions for others to succeed-this is a must read book" * Sir Ian Cheshire, Chairman of Debenhams and Former CEO of Kingfisher PLC * "The business of management is crucial - but prone to myth. In this fascinating book Stern & Cooper bring wit and courage to show what it takes to go beyond the hype and to become an insightful - and perhaps even brilliant manager." * Professor Lynda Gratton, London Business School * "Reports of the death of management are hugely exaggerated. We still do it - poorly - and we still need better insight how to do it well. Stern and Cooper have exhumed and exorcised some of the deadlier myths still haunting corporate boardrooms and do a terrific job identifying vital ways to do the true hard work of managing." * Margaret Heffernan, Writer, Business Leader and Consultant * "If we want to improve the productivity of the economy what happens within organizations is key. Leadership and management are both important. Yet for decades we have worshipped leadership (leading to excessive pay for many CEOs) and have undervalued management. In this brilliant book Stefan Stern and Cary Cooper ?debunk the myths that have encouraged bad practices. As the authors argue, open, humble, inclusive, listening leadership and management are essential - and they can be learned. Read this cracker of a book!" * Vicky Pryce, Former Joint Head of the UK Government's Economic Service * "Management matters - but is misunderstood. In this book two very experienced observers skilfully take apart common misconceptions about the theory and practice of management. Their clear thinking helps us to discover how good management can positively make organisations more productive and satisfying work places.This is a timely and provocative book-it deserves to be widely read." * Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, Authors of Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? * "Stern and Cooper have written a wonderful book to remind us of the basic, beyond-the-hype, essence of management. Purely and simply, it 's about the people." * Herminia Ibarra *