Management Basics

The article on the difficulty young professionals have in making the transition to management (C&EN, Nov. 5, page 53) highlights the reason I wrote "Down to Earth Management, A Guide for Real Life Managers" (iUniverse.com Inc., 2001).

It used to be that one slowly progressed from a job such as quality-control chemist to second-shift foreman of a small department to department foreman and so on, gradually taking on management responsibilities. In today's world, this is usually not the path. Promotion to management may come as an unexpected challenge.

The good executive or manager is a "craftsman" much like the skilled athlete. These skills are something one learns not by getting an M.B.A. but by identifying and practicing methods specific to hands-on supervision of others. The skills required range all the way from getting people for whom you are responsible to do what you want them to do to running a meeting or living with a union to such mundane elements as developing and using a To Do list. These fundamentals don't change all that much, and getting help and advice from someone who has been there and done that is a great way to get off to a good start.

Robert M. Coquillette
Lexington, Mass.