Are You Working for a "Good Manager?"

There are days when it would take convincing, but you hope your employees feel they're working for good managers. The question is whether you believe it yourself.

The problem is many of your managers may not have the skills you thought they had. Dr. Dean Gualco, author of "The Good Manager: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century Manager," says he was surprised to learn during his 20 years in high-level management that few managers had the core set of management principles necessary to manage successfully.

One of the key principles, he discovered, is to be a good manager, you "have to be a good person." Gualco says he wrote the book to not only provide practical and useful management skills, but also to emphasize the need for ethics and morals in today's managers.

"Goodness is rarely learned at a conference you attend, or at a lecture you hear, or in a book you read," says Gualco. "It is learned by those who are unbelievably kind-hearted, control the destructive human emotions of ego and selfishness, tell the truth, do what's right, and always look for the good along the road of life."

It is these lessons that are critical to learn for future managers who aspire to join this vocation, he says, for current managers who struggle to meet the often conflicting and confusing demands of their profession, and for employees who seek a better understanding and appreciation for the role of a manager in their organization.

Gualco expounds on the following principles to becoming a successful manager:

- The six key attributes a person should possess to master the art of management.

- Why your success as a manager ultimately relies on your ability to be a good person.

- How the inability to control your insecurities can destroy a promising managerial career.

- Why talent alone will not equal success.

- Why creating a fun and rewarding work environment is essential for a good manager.

According to Gualco, success and failure of a manager rests on the ability to be a good person: "If you want employees to be decent and honorable, you must be decent and honorable. It is a trait too often missing in a person, and a manager."