It's Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need Hardcover – March 13, 2007

I purchased this book for four of my managers for Christmas. It is an easy read and has very relatable scenarios in the book. Each of them has started to read the book and has personally come to me to tell me how what they read relates to something they have going on right now. It was good eye opener for them and helped them to find solutions on how to manage individuals.

I LOVE this book! Extremely readable. I abhor dry & boring leadership books, but I couldn't put this one down! I was able to read the whole thing in a weekend. I started implementing the changes Bruce suggested and I immediately saw results. As matter of fact, over the past couple weeks, our stats have improved, and my boss has taken notice and told me yesterday that he thinks our office is running so much better now. Just what a new manager wants to hear! My employees are also blossoming in front of my eyes! One is responding EXTREMELY well to this method and is quickly becoming a top performer, and one is having some opposition, but I can tell she's realizing this is the right way to do things. It has been time consuming, but in the RIGHT way. I also have WAAAAY more time to focus on my actual Office Manager duties now than I did running around putting out fires all day because no one was following procedures. So if you are struggling as a new manager or your team needs help, I'd highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this book!

This is an exceptional tool for managers. It helps us to understand the delicate balance between micromanaging and not managing at all.One of the biggest areas of frustration for managers is exactly that, managing other people! This book teaches you how to be proactive about managing, and how you can head off most "people headaches" long before they blow up in your face. Most managers get promoted into positions because they were good employees - but often do not have any management experience at all. I support this book and OFTEN recommend it because it helps managers to understand the importance of basic respect and involvement in their employee's day-to-day worklife. Management does not need to be difficult, and this book shows you both why and how.

As a manager I've sometimes struggled with how approach employees regarding task I need done and providing feedback when employees miss the mark. I have even avoided conversations at times instead of providing the feedback instantly and letting the employee continue to be a problem. This book provides excellent strategy and examples of how to be more engaging and deal with problem employees as well as good employees. This is a must read for all managers. The undermanagement epidemic is real; this book shows you how to over come it and push outstnading results.

Concise and to the point, in going over fundamental people management principles. In short, be a strong leader to get mutual respenct with employees , and results - being a weak leader invites imcomptence, and a lack orf respect in the workplace.. That is what I got from this book.

This book is ok. But, if you are going to read a Tulgan book make it " "The 27 Challenges Managers Face." You see, Tulgan's recommendations focus on meeting regularly in one-on-ones with your employees. During these meetings, you establish goals and deadlines, make expectations clear, track performance, provide feedback etc. He calls these 'high structure, high substance' meetings. That is basically what 'It's OK to Be the Boss" says.Where you get more bang for your buck is the "27 Challenges" book. He adjusts the advice for different challenges, including going from peer to leader, coming from the outside, teaching problem solving to employees, managing attitudes etc. Thus, you get a broader perspective on the basic 'high structure-high substance meetings' idea. Also, his 'people list' and some other items in the "27 Challenges' book are good too. The "27 Challenges" book would be great for a new manager training course. I have appreciated and used the "27 Challenges" recommendations.My only knock on Tulgan's recommendations is that he seems to focus too much on the 'tell them what to do' or directive behavior for the manager, rather than developing people to 'tell you what they are going to do'. If you only do the 'tell' then you will not get self-managed people. Also, you will irritate those skilled and self-motivated people who are great assets in your workforce. I would like to see his recommendations move toward developing independently acting employees (e.g. moving from S1 to S4 in the Situational Leadership Model).

Great read to help managers shape up their management style and focus on delivering tangible results. I believe that this book can be a great tool to transition to a more hands on mange,ent approach to lead any type of team.

This book promises to explore, explain and guide you through the difficulties of being a high performance boss in a demanding workforce and it delivers. Anyone who has been in Management for any length of time will see many of the pitfalls that Bruce discusses and say, "oh, I remember that," or "yep, been there!" More importantly than getting the scenarios right, he gets the usual outcomes spot on as well. This gives strength and credibility to his recommended management styles which align strongly with common sense. In the end, It's all about expectations and accountability and Bruce Tulgan delivers both for the unsure or discouraged managing professional.

I've been in management for a good portion of my career and just before the pandemic hit I moved into a position leading a team of bright, Millennial managers, in an organization that I was new to but they weren't, and didn't really have the opportunity to establish strong relationships with them. Long story short, I adopted a management style that was different than my natural one and inadvertently joined the under-management epidemic Bruce Tulgan addresses in this book. The first portion of this book was really uncomfortable for me and exactly what I needed to hear.The rest of the book had a lot of common sense advice/suggestions, which reminded me of the manager I have been, and am capable of being again, and opened my eyes to a few things I still needed to learn and practice. For many successful long time managers, there's likely to be little or nothing new to be gleaned. For new managers there's a lot of practical knowledge to be gained. And for managers who've been successful in the past but have gotten more hands-off, for fear of becoming micromanagers or because they don't think they have time for the day-to-day hands-on management, this is a good refresher.One of the things I appreciated most was that it's about management not leadership, and about what you do rather than who you are. You can be a manager without being a leader AND you can be a leader without being an effective manager. These can be equally disastrous in the workplace. There's umpteen books, courses, blogs, podcasts, etc. on leadership out there these days, but next to nothing on the mechanics of being a good, effective manager that sets people up for success. It's Okay to Be the Boss is a straight-forward, easy to read, with plenty of easily applied info. The book did belabour a few things, but that might benefit newer managers.

An explanation on how to manage hands-on. Very different from the trend going on right now where companies are trying to adopt a "free company" approach with employees and let them manage themselves. In my opinion there's some good practices in both style of management. But nevertheless, interesting book.

Great read interesting writing keeps you ready

This is a must for all who manage, a blessing for young managers who are often not provided formal guidance.

A good, balancing approach to lots of other management books as it takes a hands on vs hands off approach.