A Manager's Guide, Video, 2001, Quality Media Resources. Other material: leader guide, handout masters, reminder cards.
Review by Bill Ellet

I know the director of this video, Robert Rosell. More than know, I like and respect him. My objectivity might be affected; on the other hand, my regard for Robert sets my expectations at a high level.

Robert has developed a formula for his videos: a super-ensemble of narrators, content experts, and vignette actors combined with portions of good writing and videography. The formula has the flexibility to work with a wide range of topics.

The dramatic foundation of the show consists of a theater company preparing a production of Hamlet. The director of the play serves as the manager, and the actors are the employees. The principal characters of the play occasionally use the Bard's words to suggest advice for new managers.

The famous fondling of a skull would probably not pass muster as a recommended practice in most organizations and neither would the dramatically charged issue of Hamlet's doubts, hesitations, and equivocations. Yet, is it not better for managers to be overly deliberate than excessively impulsive?

Hamlet on management
The first video, "Surviving the Slings and Arrows," marches through the essential duties of a manager who wants to keep the job. The novice should know how to be astute in hiring; understand the meaning of equal employment opportunity and the boundaries he or she must enforce concerning harassment; how to terminate fairly and legally; and how to manage performance.

The second video, "To Lead or Not to Lead," examines the skills needed to lead people, not just manage them. The skills selected are all important: effective communication, coaching, conflict management, time management, and the qualities of leaders. I'm not sure the video title accurately describes the content. I'd place the first four in the toolbox labeled "Basics for Survival."

All along the way, the cast performs a double play: a nascent Hamlet and demonstrations for the nascent manager. Like most videos these days, the content is ruthlessly pared down, but so is training time in most organizations.

The new managers
The producer probably has another reason for sticking to the basics. New managers are different from their predecessors. They're much younger than they used to be. That means they have far less experience, on-the-job and life, to draw on. The promotion means trial by fire. For the energetic but callow new breed, skills training should be stripped down. These folks don't have the time to sit in a classroom for hours at a time, and some of them aren't going to be given too much time to prove themselves.

We can debate whether the flight to youth is a completely good thing. Ford Motor Company went through a major shakeup at the top after several years of increasingly poor performance. One of the major factors cited for the decline was the steady buyout of veteran managers and the promotion of younger people. Suddenly, the institutional memory had a bad case of amnesia.

The trend isn't going to change, however. If practice follows reality, we should see more management training and more products like this one.

The ensemble of experts, practitioners rather than theorists, checks in regularly to diagnose interactions, suggest fixes, and offer concepts. Inevitably, their comments overlap to a degree, and some of the speakers are stronger than others. Still, the voice of seasoned practitioners helps to fill the void for novices.

The leader's guide provides handouts that aren't slidelike repetitions of the video. They're small essays with detailed explanations of each topic. The guide has questions to be asked before and after viewing the tape, suggested answers, and roleplay directions. The guide suggests outlines for live training sessions and self-study.

Recommendation
A Manager's Guide again confirms the aptness of the producer's name, Quality Media Resources. Using his flexible formula, Robert Rosell crafts a primer for new managers that sticks to topics most of us would agree are essential. He keeps things moving for the audience and doesn't clutter the message. The focus and clarity will help the new and mostly young new managers of today hit the ground walking instead of just hitting the ground.

4 stars is Training Media Review's highest rating indicating outstanding quality.

Bill Ellet (wellet@tmreview.com) is editor of Training Media Review.