Having experienced 12 years of management and found my style to be subtly different from my colleagues - which attracted some interesting criticism, such as I couldn't be doing my job properly because I hadn't done any disciplinaries for a year or more - it occurred to me that maybe I had something to write about.

Having the dubious luxury of some time off, I became involved in a charity fundraising activity, sewing the eyes onto knitted chickens. While I sewed I saw parallels between some of the ‘extras' that happened and some of the early lessons that I learned as a manager. Typically these were the sort of activities that I found I was simply expected to ‘know' - apart from teamwork they certainly never came up in the management training events that I attended or in such a way that I was easily able to convert theory to practice.

The areas that I cover are:
The Eyes Have It(Learning and applying what you learn)
Planning(Just how much do you need to do?)
Teamwork(The benefits of working together)
The Same But Different(How we are all individuals)
Shades of Yellow(Appreciating others' point of view)
Snagging Thread(Delegating responsibility and retaining control)
Measure The Right Thing(Understanding the impact of what you measure and why)
The Right Measurement System(Using tools that measure what is meaningful)
Eyes in The Back of Your Head(Knowing what is going on around you)
A Squeeze Helps(Recognition and correction)
Flying Lessons(Helping your staff put new learning into practice)
Off The Edge(Helping struggling staff to stay on board)
Trimming The Beaks(Checking quality as an integral way of working)
Snip - Accidental Damage(Keeping mistakes in perspective and damage limitation)
Recognition(Recognising and celebrating success and achievement)

There's nothing to say that I am ‘right' in what I offer and I have had enough experience to appreciate that one-size cannot possibly ‘fit all'. What I can offer is that this is what I attribute the successes I have enjoyed, which includes productive and customer satisfying staff. The book is written with a view to being thought provoking for readers.

At just over 100 pages this book is designed for a quick read (probably about 2 hours) and can be used by newly appointed managers and experienced managers alike - either reading though the whole book or using it for ‘quick reminders' and inspiration.