The Good Manager: A Model for the Twenty-First Century

By Dean Gualco

You can be the smartest person in the room and even the most experienced, but if youre not a good person, theres little chance youll succeed as a manager.

Thats one of the big takeaways from The Good Manager, which is based on Dean Gualcos decades of experience as a leader and manager. To be good person, he says, you must live a decent and honorable life, be kindhearted, control destructive human emotions, tell the truth, do whats right, and always look for the good.

In this guidebook to honing your leadership and management skills, youll learn how tounderstand how the view of managers has evolved over time;appreciate the most rewarding aspects of management;cultivate the ability to plan, delegate, and manage time; andmake work fun for yourself and others.

Being a good personas well as learning the necessary skills to excel as a managerare rarely taught at conferences or lectures or on the job. But if you want to move along the intellectual/moral spectrum from self-interest to human interest, negativity to positivity, darkness to enlightenment, and hate to friendship, then you need to learn the lessons in The Good Manager.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491798294

Dean Gualco

Dean Gualco is the owner of Torgun Consulting. He earned his doctorate from the University of the Pacific and his master’s degree from the University of Southern California. He is also the author of The Good Manager.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Dean Gualco.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9827-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9828-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9829-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016909277

iUniverse rev. date: 07/01/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Changing Managerial Profession

What Is a Manager?

A Challenging Time for Management

Blame the Managers

The Evolving Image of a Manager

The Rewarding Profession of Management

Summary: The Changing Profession of Management

Chapter 2: Like What You Do

Summary: Like What You Do

Chapter 3: Know Your Job

A Manager’s Academic Background

A Manager’s Experiences

Knowledge of Your Job

Knowledge of Your Company

Knowledge of Your Industry

Summary: Know Your Job

Chapter 4: Exceptional Organizational Skills

The Ability to Plan

The Ability to Delegate

The Ability to Manage Time

Summary: Exceptional Organizational Skills

Chapter 5: Work Hard

Drive and Determination

Sacrifice

Work Worth Doing

Summary: Work Hard

Chapter 6: Make Work Fun

Care about People

Find the Right Person for the Right Job

Have an Extraordinary Attitude

Summary: Make Work Fun

Chapter 7: Be a Good Person

A Kind Person

Control the Most Destructive Human Emotions

Tell the Truth

Do What’s Right

Always Look for the Good

Summary: Be a Good Person

Chapter 8: The Last Word

Appendix—The Story of the Backpack

Endnotes

To my children, Gunner and Toria,

who have given me a blessed life.

Always look for the good along the road of life.

Acknowledgments

I have long believed that if you can dream the impossible dream, be determined to achieve it, never fear failure or what other people think, work hard, do what’s right, and always look for the good, then you will have greatness within your grasp. Fame and fortune are not the determining factors of a great life but rather that you fought the good fight, that you did the best you could with what you had, that you did what was right, and that, in some small way, you made a difference. It has been a great ride, and for that I have been blessed, and I am grateful to many who have helped me along my path. I’d like to thank the following people:

■ The Man Upstairs, who has made this all possible.

■ To Mom and Dad … the best that could ever be said about someone’s parents is that they were decent and honorable people, and you far exceed that bar!

■ My maternal grandmother (Vee McCoy) and paternal grandparents (Bocci and Rose Gualco), who gave me a solid reputation to live up to.

■ Bill Munroe. Find a friend like Bill, and you will be set for life. I have been lucky!

■ Keith Williams. Once or twice, you make a friend who lasts a lifetime. Keith is one of those friends.

■ Jeff Thompson. A good man who sets a sterling example for his children. Thanks for the inspirational contributions to this book!

■ Nick Ponticello. Really one of the most giving people I have met.

■ Sierra and Shana Brucia. We are lucky to have met, and to get to spend time with, such great people!

■ Finally, to Jon Smith. I knew Jon from the second grade until freshman year of college, when he was killed by a drunk driver. He was just one of the best guys you would ever, ever meet. He never had the chance to live his life, to reach his destiny, to achieve greatness. Jon died more than thirty years ago, and while his chance to make a difference was short-lived, this fact haunts me to make a difference with whatever time I have been granted on this earth.

Introduction

In the years following the end of World War II—a point at which the United States was at its zenith in terms of industrial and manufacturing dominance—managers were held in high regard by those in the political, economic, and social circles of our country. Employees felt a sense of trust in their managers, and managers a sense of duty to their employees. Sadly, that feeling has largely dissipated not only in the United States but throughout the world. An increasing number of books, magazine articles, and newspaper columns have been written denigrating the managerial profession and blaming the profession of management for the distrust in our political institutions, the collapse of our economic system, and the stresses in our social compositions. This is not an accurate assessment, nor a fair perception, but it allows some to assign blame for the challenges in our economic, political, and societal institutions to a profession without much public support or sympathy.

In actuality, the field of management itself is a dynamic, exciting, and invigorating profession. It is also time-consuming and stressful, and it requires a constant retooling of an individual’s knowledge and skills. It is far from a static, pedestrian profession. This is what makes the job of a manager so enticing yet so intimidating. Given the complexity of the global business environment, the set of knowledge and skills required to become a good manager may appear beyond the average person.

The sixteenth-century English dramatist and writer Phillip Massinger once wrote, He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.¹ If you want employees to be decent and honorable, you must first be decent and honorable yourself. If you want your employees to do the right thing at the right time, you must first do the right thing at the right time. And if you want your employees to do and to be good, you must first do and be good in your own life. Goodness is rarely learned at a conference you attend, or at a lecture you hear, or in a course that you complete. It is learned by those who are committed to helping their fellow humans and advancing the interests of our world. It is, indeed, an incredibly high standard.

I truly believe those in the managerial profession endeavor to do their best and try to live admirable lives. They make good decisions for their employees and customers and are committed to doing their best. We, unfortunately, rarely hear of these supervisors and managers in our newspapers and magazines. Why? Because goodness does not sell, whereas evil, treachery, and debauchery do. The people who manage their departments effectively, spend their incomes efficiently, control their expenses prudently, and are responsive to their clients and their customers are rarely heard of. The person who mismanages the organization’s financial resources, who takes advantage of his clients or customers, or who is lax or irresponsible in his duties or responsibilities—if it is to a large degree—has a chance of becoming infamous for his transgressions. He then becomes a symbol of everyone in the profession. The general public, for some reason, is intrigued and interested in evil but raises little interest in goodness.

So how does a good person, or a good manager, become bad? Was he or she born that way or raised in a certain manner? Obviously, the way someone is raised does have an impact on the type of person he or she eventually becomes. Is it a lack of knowledge or skills or consciousness or morals? Certainly those traits are absent—or in short supply—for bad people and bad managers. But rather than devoting efforts to determining why someone becomes bad, a wiser approach is to determine how a person can become good and how a manager with the requisite knowledge and moral clarity can learn to become a better manager and a better person.

Most management courses, seminars, and strategies concentrate on certain professional characteristics as the pathway to success; however, it is the one personal characteristic largely ignored in these same courses and seminars that ultimately determines the long-term respect and success of those in the management profession. That characteristic is the need for a good manager to be a good person. This characteristic is the most difficult to obtain and retain since it demands a level of decency, honor, and goodness that is increasingly rare in our world. Yet it is the one characteristic that best determines the success and failure of a manager and, over the long term, an organization—and the one characteristic that best determines a good manager.

My nearly twenty-five years of leadership and management experience—including years served as the director of a municipal department, owner of an organizational restructuring consulting firm, and author and lecturer in the field of managerial competence and capability—together with my educational research in obtaining a doctorate in education, a master’s in business administration, and a master’s of public administration, have provided me with a unique perspective on the challenges of management. Through these experiences in the management profession and as a management consultant, I have formulated six key attributes—five professional, and one personal—that a person should possess in order to master the art of management and to be generally viewed as a good, capable, decent, and honorable manager. They are as follows:

1. Like what you do. It is a challenge to be good at something if you do not enjoy doing it. Good managers choose a job they like in a company they enjoy working for. When you like what you do, you work harder and enjoy the experience more. You look forward to performing the duties and responsibilities of your job, and those duties and responsibilities are often performed in a more effective manner.

2. Know your job. The accumulation and utilization of knowledge is an important characteristic of a good manager. Knowledge encapsulates more than understanding the mission and culture of an organization, or remaining well educated and informed. Without the requisite knowledge of the job you are assigned to perform, the company you have selected to work for, and the industry you have chosen to work in, it is nearly impossible to make the right decision at the right time and for the right reason. And making the right decision at the right time and for the right reason—which is indicative of a person who possesses reasoned and sound judgment—lies at the heart of the flourishing career and prosperous organization, and forms a foundational core for those serving in the management profession.

3. Exceptional organizational skills. Good managers perform a wide variety of duties and responsibilities, and in order to meet those expectations, they need three broad organizational skills: the ability to plan, the ability to delegate, and the ability to manage time. No matter the vision, strategic plan, or dream of grandiose ambitions, unless a manager learns the organizational skills to plan effectively, delegate appropriately, and manage time efficiently, his or her ambitions will remain unfulfilled and unrealized. That is truly an unfortunate circumstance since organizational skills can be easily learned and improved upon.

4. Work hard. Nearly any superstar you meet in your journeys—those who achieve spectacular success and achieve their phenomenal ambitions—possess immense talent in their field, but then they work hard to perfect that talent. Talent alone rarely results in greatness; it is the ability and willingness to work hard that overcomes nearly any obstacle in one’s path. Good managers have the drive and determination to work hard to ensure they remain on the right path to achieve their destiny.

5. Make work fun. Fun is a basic human emotion and need, one unique to each person. Some seek fun through traveling, and others in watching television, some playing tennis, and others playing golf, some reading, and some writing, and some start a business, and others work in a large organization. We want to have fun because it enriches our souls and enlivens our spirits. Crafting a fun place to work starts with managers who hire the right person for the job, sincerely care about the people they work with, and have an extraordinary attitude that fosters a work environment where differing ideas are cherished and honest efforts rewarded. This creates an interesting, collaborative, lively, and fun place to work, which in turn helps attract and retain the best employees in the marketplace. It is these types of workplaces that have the best chance to reach the pinnacle of success.

6. Be a good person. The most important characteristic of a good manager is that he or she is a good person, one who is incredibly kind, controls the most destructive human emotions, tells the truth, does what is right, and always looks for the good along the road of life. Managers who possess