Managerial Anxiety Cure?

The nervous tick and quivering voice some of your new managers develop doesn't have to send them to additional sessions with their therapist (or you, for that matter). A new book provides guidance on helping them relax the easy way.

Given the current economic climate, it's no wonder more new managers are arriving to their posts with high anxiety. Katharine Giacalone, a human resources and training development specialist for the last 25 years, says she increasingly encounters clients who are promoting employees to managers overnight due to the shift in the economy. This phenomenon gives an unfortunate new meaning to "do more with less," she notes. Many of these newly-promoted managers, Giacalone points out, are left overwhelmed, unprepared, and wondering, "What do I do now?!"

Giacalone's first book, "Oops! I'm The Manager! Getting Past 'What Do I Do Now?!' in 5 Easy Steps," was written to provide an entertaining, yet useful, hands-on guide for managers, she says. The author explains that the book was meant to be worthwhile both to those who are suddenly thrown into management and find themselves without the necessary training, as well as "experienced" managers.

Among other quick-tips, the book features "Nanny Cheat Sheets" managers can use to help them excel in their own management roles. The book also offers interactive scenarios and games, such as, "Nanny Challenges," which allow readers to test what they've learned and immediately assess their understanding.

Known in consulting circles as "The Corporate Nanny," Giacalone says she "tells it like it is" for businesses, offering tough love for organizations and managers. She likes to illustrate points with stories from her corporate and personal experience, and through the introduction of "The Playground Personalities" that, funnily enough, turn up again in the adult playground of the office—The Peacemaker, The Organizer, The Revolutionary, and The Steamroller.

"These are personalities we've all known our whole lives, from our earliest days on the grade school playground," explains Giacalone. "It's important managers are able to quickly assess the various personality styles that affect every situation they face, and know how to deal effectively with each personality type. Using The Playground Personalities lets them do this easily."

These four personalities are different than typical methodologies used in most management books to identify personality styles, says Giacalone. Instead, readers learn a way to identify first their own management styles, and then the styles of the people they manage.

"This is the book I needed when I 'stumbled up' into management roles," says Giacalone. "I had to learn on the fly, so I'm pleased to be able to offer managers a practical guide full of the strategies they'll need and the humor that will help them keep their sanity along the way!"