Book review: Empower your inner manager

A few weeks ago, Ian Mackintosh, the founder and president of OCP-IP, told me that he was putting the finishing touches on a book. Of course I was interested. Then he told me it was a management book and I was even more interested. I am sure you have, just like me, read books from the likes of Geoffrey Moore , Clayton Christensen etc. and that they have helped you to formulate ideas in your mind about how to go about doing your job. But all of those books need a certain amount of adapting. How do they apply to the EDA world? Now we have a management book that is somewhat different in two respects. First the author has direct knowledge and experience about our world, our problems, and our way of doing things. Second, it is not another book directed towards the market or management skills, it is a book targeted at personal assessment and planning for your career development. Thus I was eager to take a read and I am glad that I did.

Empower your inner manager: essential skills, self-assessment, and effective planning that secure successful careers.

Ian, like me, has spent a lot of time looking within ourselves in a critical way. Ian has successfully founded and developed a very successful organization and along that path he worked out what skills he would need, what he lacked and how he was going to put them in place. I too looked at myself and decided that there were certain skills that I lacked. I did not enjoy them and without them I would limit my career advancement in a certain direction. Based on that assessment I changed my career path. How are you going to make that assessment?

In this industry we often promote people when they have reached a certain competence in the job they are doing. We don’t prepare them ahead of time for the next level in their career; we wait to see what skills they lack after they are in the new position. This is not the right way to go about things, and Ian says that you should take the reins yourself and direct your own development. This book does not teach you the skills, it tells you how to recognize the skills that you have, the skills that you need and how to go about obtaining those skills. In that regard this short, pointed book is unique and a valuable use of the short amount of time it will take to read it. The results could be priceless.

He breaks the skills set down to the following 15 skills:

• Specific job-related skills and training
• Problem Solving
• Decision Analysis
• Interpersonal relationships / management style
• Delegating
• Motivating
• Planning
• Organizing
• Controlling
• Reengineering
• Team playing
• Leading
• Mentoring
• Time management
• Public speaking / presenting

I have learned a thing or two from this book even though I thought I knew myself fairly well. I am working on my plan for self-improvement. Maybe you are out of work, or looking to advance your career. If so, I would highly recommend this book and the electronic version is a steal!

Find more information here.

Brian Bailey – keeping you covered

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