Making impossibles possible

With a title such as this, the reader is just swept away with a promise of fulfilment. The book does not dissappoint. The authors have culled together their collective experience, put across their native wisdom and offered a book that helps you get going to your goals. For the issue is this: If you find your goal unreachable, or your workplace a millstone around your neck, or the time-table running amok and you are really left behind as life speeds by, you must take a look at this book and glean the wisdom offered therein.

The book is a veritable guide for every manager who wants to get the best out of his career. It is not just the basics but about the process and will lead you to achieve tangible results. The book begins with time management and priorities. Now, if you can't manage your time, you can't manage anything. For life is not as authors say, "just a piece of cake"! The route to success in the workplace and at home is related to time management and when we look at it, we realise how much time we really have and it is really enough to do all the things we want, provided we know how to get our act together - which means prioritise.

It is easy to talk about it. The authors are more practical as they have a training background and they ask you to sit back and think of the things that you need to do and then list things in the right order and see how much time you should devote to each activity. A few common myths about time management are also debunked. The myth that one is successful and so one is managing one's time; the myth about working under pressure, so one doesn't need to manage one's time, and the final one that one needs time to manage. Once we clear our heads of these cobwebs, there will be few time wasters that one needs to take care of. The prime one is one's inability to say 'no' and the utter lack of discipline.

With time behind you, the issues of commitment and hard work need to be looked at. In order to achieve, you must first of all have the right attitude to climb the ladder and go the extra mile. A positive attitude is what counts. The authors even reassemble the word 'impossible' to read ' I M Possible'. Isn't that something? And this has nothing to do with the gender. Both men and women can achieve this without much ado. The authors provide six elements to making a success of yourself. The first is commonsense and everybody has plenty of that. If you lack it, you do not deserve to be called a manager. The second one is hard work. Hard work is getting on with your work to completion, however tough the situation. The next step is gut feeling or intuition. It is all about taking the right decision at the right time and this comes only when you know your subject well enough and you have faith in your own abilities.

The next step is confidence. Confidence comes from knowledge and experience and a certain faith in one's self. But more important is the next step. That of thinking clearly. And the final element is developing foresight. The book briefly touches on the common reasons for motivating people. These include money, power, recognition, achievement and belief in a cause. As for commitment, an entire chapter awaits the reader to plough through. And confidence is explained through an anagram.

Everything is not rosy. Issues such as depression, stress, crisis and change effect the managers. The authors give valuable insight into these issues and help you tide over the problem with helpful tips. Health and well being in the workplace is as important as performance. And one needs to relax as much as exercise. Then there are the questions of honesty and this vital to sound business. So is the question of communication. The authors give you seven steps to being a good communicator and these really help. Next comes the stage of a negotiator. The move is to achieve a win-win situation. The art of interviewing is also dissected.

Success in management is a people related job. If you cannot thrive with people you are lost. And a few tips on dress code and being a perfect host complete the book. A must for the ambitious manager.

- Bookworm