How to be an even better manager - [Management technique]

What are the 50 best ways of improving your management skills? And do you have an effective checklist of all the questions you need to be on top of? In the first of our two-part mini-series, bestselling author and management expert Michael Armstrong talks tcE&T. If there's one 'How to' manual all managers should have on their shelves, it's probably 'How to be an Even Better Manager'. It's now run into several editions, with the most recent update published this year (conveniently, in time for Christmas). Covering 50 key aspects of management, it now includes eight new chapters dealing with how to achieve continuous improvement, make a business case, delight customers, manage risk, prepare a business plan and, as we await forecasts of an upturn in the global economy, how to recover from setbacks. Author Michael Armstrong has plenty of knowledge to draw upon. His practical experience includes more than a decade as a human resources director and five years in general management. He has led consultancy assignment in the private, public and voluntary sectors, and is a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He began as a management trainee with Rowntrees (now Nestle) and became responsible for training at BAE Aerospace. "A business may have all sorts of progressive HR policies," says Armstrong, "but it is managers who have to make them work on the ground." Achieving success is not so much a question of going on a course. It's more a question of observing and absorbing, thinking critically about your own performance and developing new skills. According to Armstrong, management can be learned. It can also be distilled from experience.