Myths of Management

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.

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.

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

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.

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.