Title of the book: Boss Management
Author: Abir Shaukat Hayat
Published in Bangladesh by ProthomaProkashan
19 Karwan Bazar, Dhaka 1215
First edition December 2019
The book describes about, as the title suggests, managing boss. Who is a boss? The answer to the question is described in the first chapter of the book “Principles of Boss-Subordinate Relationship”.The author emphatically mentioned that the boss is a person who could influence our life to a great extent.
He guides, decides, and arranges resources for our success in professional life. The author meticulously describes about types of bosses and how subordinates should act, react or behave with boss.
These are practical tips that the author has gained through his experience working in different corporations.
The book starts with an ‘evaluation form’ regarding boss-subordinate relationship so that the reader will have a self-assessment of how well or unwell is his relationship with the boss before going through the book.
The book gradually unfolds the characteristic definition of a boss; principles of boss-subordinate relationship; types of bosses; proactive or reactive boss, reasons of boss-subordinate conflicts and their solutions.
These are important areas that the author has very aptly described. The reader will, beyond doubt, realize that the first chapter is the heart of the book. Because it describes: who is a boss? Types of bosses in accordance with the reporting line – line boss, admin boss, dotted boss, project boss, and other bosses in a matrix reporting system.
The book draws references and/or inferences from management gurus. One such management guru that the author refers is Peter F. Drucker who in his famous book “The Effective Executive” mentioned about the importance of boss-executive relationship which, as mentioned, is often overlooked or not given due importance by executives and thus they put their career in jeopardy.
The chapter on ‘Micromanaging Boss’ is an interesting chapter.It focuses on leadership passages: first time supervisor; second step manager; third step is department boss who has 2/3 layers of subordinates; fourth step is becoming CEO; fifth step is becoming divisional CEO and the sixth step is Group CEO.
The other side of the game is the arrival of “Second Innings Boss”. These are the persons who have served long with different companies or retired as government high officials.
They have no financial demands. Now they have come to play the 2nd innings with high salary. Characteristically, these people are gentle, well-behaved, and always inspiring. Because of their easy going attitude, they inject life in the office.
People remain happy working with them. Whatever they have learned previously, they try to coach young executives those learned experiences that he brought with. Those coming from Multi-National Companies, feel that the policies, procedures, forms and formats all are obsolete so they immediately embark upon changing these formats without minding the long established practices of the company.
This creates a great confusion among the employees. This is one side of the story, the other side of the story is the opposite of it. Many of them are not as giftedas the first category. They feel that they have nothing to give in this 2nd innings game. Moreover the culture that they worked especially in government offices do not match with the life and culture of the private businesses. So, they fail miserably most of the time. Within a short span of time the employers become dismayed with their performances.
They start looking for his replacement stealthily. The author ends his book with an emphasis on creating a relationship between boss and subordinates based on expectation, humility, and trust.
With all these interesting anecdotes and analysis in different chapters of the book, the readers will find it useful…
The book is written in Bangla for easy understanding of executives. End of the book contains self-assessment tools and forms for the practicing managers and executives.
These tools will help them assess their current leadership qualities.The readers will find the book interesting as well as rewarding.
The book is reviewed by Dr. Ulfat Hussain, an HR professional
