I'm a manager at work and my boss asked me to read this book about managing that has informed some his management style. That's a great opportunity—to explicitly know where your boss is coming from. And the information presented in the book seems actually useful as well—it's a philosophy and process for handling the times when an employee has failed to meet expectations: missed a deadline, turned in work with mistakes or not up to quality, etc. The process is fairly straightforward. It's about fostering an environment based in reality and honesty.

There's a couple things that frustrated me: Like with many of this sort of business book, the essential notion could probably be expressed in a pamphlet, but no one's going to pay $20 for a pamphlet, so it's been padded out. Also, the writing is very stiff and businessy. And the example conversations in the book are all so simplistic as to drive me crazy. (The Boss makes the point that it's simple to make the points. But does it all have to sound like people in a 1950s industrial film?)

But that reality and honesty stuff. Man, that's some powerful ideas there.

FuzzyCo grade: B-