ALAN Fairweather took to the business of training managers because he encountered many mediocre managers in the early phase of his professional career. Based on this new experience, he published How to be a Motivational Manager in 2007, which has now been made available in its first Indian edition.
Fairweather thinks that a successful manager should have a high level of confidence, strong self-belief, lots of energy, courage to face up to situations, and ability to develop rapport with the members of his team. He should choose each member of the team with care and look for the same qualities in them that he would see in a successful manager. To gain the trust and confidence of his team members, he should spend “quality time” with them. He should be willing to listen to their problems with patience, make a careful assessment of their feedback, and give them individual attention. In short, he has to make them feel that they matter to him. Fairweather’s discussion of all these aspects is fairly exhaustive and takes into account all the available specialist research on them.
All the nine chapters in the book have been neatly arranged-with headings, subheadings, and key points framed in eye-catching boxes. The writing is clear, jargon-free, and easy to understand. The most noticeable feature of the book is that theory is made subservient to practice; Fairweather stresses that every manager should consistently endeavour to understand his team members from a business point of view and a human point of view. This makes the book immensely valuable and readable, and truly lives up to its promise of being an essential guide for leaders and managers.
(Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, 1/10, Ansari Rd, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110 002)
