Easy in Harness: A Productive Approach to Hiring a Good Manager explores how poor management and leadership impact not only the financial side of companies, but the overall well-being of the people, customers, and the organization as a whole. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I experienced first-hand the impact of management, good and not so good, in my life and on my productivity. The difference was enormous. Under the one regime, I was anxious and inefficient and lost sleep; under the other, I was resilient and looked forward to going to work every day.

Then I applied the lessons I’d learned over the first half of my career when I became a manager and had a great deal of success. Employees who had looked at the floor and vanished at 4:30 when I arrived, looked me in the face and smiled just before I left for a new position, often still at work on their projects at 6. I felt it was important to share what I’d learned, since autocratic management in the workplace remains relatively common, is still often viewed in economic literature as just one strategy among many, and continues to do a good deal of harm. I wrote this book in the hope that more people would have the opportunity to develop and apply their skills in a vibrant workplace.

How much research did you undertake for this book, and how much time did it take to put it all together?

I did probably an average amount of book and interview research. I took management training, read probably 30 books, lots of articles, and asked everyone I knew and met about their experiences. But, more important, it took 40 years of workplace living. My research was my hopes and dreams, my failures and successes, my anxieties and elations, my frustrations and breakthroughs; and seeing others find their way, become better employees, better teachers and better people, become managers themselves, blossom.

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

I wanted to be intuitive but rigorous, comprehensive but succinct, reflective but clear.

What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Easy in Harness?

Autocracy is no better in the workplace than it is in a society at large.

That is a message with different implications for people in different roles. Most of us are happy to learn to do things better and to be productive contributors. Few of us want to be abused or belittled or to have our ideas and suggestions ignored. I’d hope that managers would take this to heart, that workers would find ways, difficult as this can be, to share this insight with their managers, and that administrators would be more likely to hire entrepreneurial managers.

Author Link: GoodReads