Book Review: It’s Okay To Be the Boss: The Step-By-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need, by Bruce Tulgan

Generation Yers have grown up with “helicopter parents” and teachers who catered to their every need. They told them what they were doing right and what they were doing wrong, showed them how to improve when they were doing something wrong, etc.

And because of this, Gen Yers are now looking for strong managers who not only guide them, but who educate and mentor them as well. In fact, according to a recent Robert Half International and Yahoo! HotJobs survey, What Millennial Workers Want, “60 percent of Gen Yers want to hear from their managers at least once a day.”

Unfortunately, managers don’t always manage their employees as effectively as they should, so there’s what Gen Y expert, Bruce Tulgan, calls an “undermanagement epidemic.”

In Tulgan’s book, It’s Okay To Be The Boss—The Step-By-Step Guide To Becoming The Manager Your Employees Need, he talks about the undermanagement epidemic—managers failing to take charge of the daily work environment by “telling employees what to do and how to do it, by monitoring and measuring and documenting their performance, by solving problems quickly and by singling people out for reward when they do a great job.”

Tulgan talks about how, behind any poor employee or negative experience dealing with an employee, a store, etc., there’s a poor manager. He says it’s the manager’s job to keep things running smoothly and make sure employees are doing their job efficiently and consistently.

“But too many leaders, managers, and supervisors are failing to lead, manage and supervise,” Tulgan says. “They simply do not take charge on a day-to-day basis. They fail to spell out expectations every step of the way, track performance constantly, correct failure, and reward success. They are afraid to, or they don’t want to, or they don’t know how to. All across the workplace, at all levels of organizations in every industry, there is a shocking and profound lack of daily guidance, direction, feedback and support for employees.”

And Tulgan says that undermanagement is, “costing organizations a fortune every day.”

“It [undermanagement] robs so many employees of the chance to have positive experiences in the workplace, reach greater success, and earn more of what they need and want,” he says. “It causes managers to struggle and suffer and deliver suboptimal results. It sours dealings with vendors and customers.”

Now this doesn’t mean managers need to “micromanage” employees by hovering over them and keeping track of their every move, but it does mean managers need to be more proactive and customize their management style for the people they are managing.

Here are three of the eight ways Tulgan says you can be a great manager:

• Manage Every Day—Tulgan says if you ever want to be a great manager, you need to stop looking at managing employees as an “extra burden.” He says because a lot of managers only manage employees when there’s a problem, it’s started to become “management by special occasion,” which is not helpful to employees.
  
  “Taking those first steps toward effective managing takes discipline and guts,” Tulgan says. “New behaviors, no matter how good they are, often don’t feel comfortable until they become habits.”
  
  If you’re ever going to be successful as a manager, you need to be proactive, not reactive. This happens by starting to manage everyday.
  
  
• Talk Like a Performance Coach—“The most effective managers have a special way of talking,” Tulgan says. “They adopt a special posture, demeanor, and tone. They have a way of talking that is both authoritative and sympathetic; both demanding and supportive; both disciplined and patient. It is a way of talking that is neither Mr. Friend nor Mr. Boss, but rather nearly exactly in the middle. This special way of talking looks a lot like performance coaching.”
  
  Tulgan says performance coaching is, “steady and persistent, relentlessly methodical and hands-on, enthusiastic and pushy. It is the constant banter of focus, improvement and accountability.”
  
  He says to understand this fully, think about the best boss you’ve ever had (or best teacher, coach, etc) and remember the impact they had on you.
  
  
• Take It One Person at a Time—Rather than trying to lump all your employees together and manage them at the same time, Tulgan says it’s best to figure out what works for each employee and customize your management.
  
  “All of your employees come to work with different levels of ability and skill: different backgrounds, personalities, styles, ways of communicating, work habits, and motivations,” he says. “Some of them need more guidance than others. One employee needs details spelled out, while another has the details memorized. One responds best if you ask questions, while another prefers you tell him all the answers…The only way to cope with the incredible diversity among your employees is to figure out what works with each person and then customize your management style accordingly.”
  

It’s Okay To Be The Boss dispels the idea that undermanaging is better than over-managing and gives sound advice for how to be the best manager you can be. If you’re interested in being a great Gen Y manager, I highly suggest you read this book. 

Generation Yers have grown up with “helicopter parents” and teachers who catered to their every need.