Book Review: Three Signs of a Miserable Job

My colleague, Mallon, heard me talking about various things, including my desire to become a better manager. She graciously let me borrow her book, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni. I must admit that I was a little skeptical. The book starts with the story of Brian. Brain believes his calling is management. The fable (as it is called in the book) follows Brian through various management experiments, which develops the theory.

I liked the fable style. I could not believe how the simple story of Brian trying to make employees less miserable entertained, informed and engaged me with the material. I'll get to the theory of the book in a second, but the form of the book was engaging. I'm looking forward to reading another of his books, Death by Meeting soon.

First and foremost, this is a book about people managing direct reports, not strategy. The theory rests on the assumption that regardless of the type of job, there are three things that cause employees to be miserable: lack of measurement (the author calls this immeasurement), anonymity and irrelevance.

To be clear about the opposite of immeasurement, Lencioni means that every employee should have measures that lets her leave everyday knowing if she had a good day or not. It could be as simple as how many customers smiled at her, but it is clear at the end of the day.

The part that made me sit up and read harder was the portion on irrelevance. Each employee needs to understand how he is making someone's life better. Managers need to be able to express to their employees precisely how the employees make their lives better. And managers need to drop the assumption that smart people will "just know" how they are making other people's lives better. I think everyone has experienced days where they have left work thinking, "Why am I doing this project?" or "Why am I on this team?" I heard someone say that RR&Es should answer the "whys," so that is one tool managers can use to address this.

Anonymity is the feeling that you are a cog, and if you were replaced tomorrow by someone equally able, no one would notice. The author puts it like this, "It's one thing to know that an employee's daughter likes dancing. It's quite another to ask how Friday's dance recital went" (230).

The author goes on to give many examples and practical steps to change. For someone new to management, I recommend giving this a read through. Have any of you read this before? What did you think of it? What books would you recommend to inexperienced/new managers that can help with some of the basics?

Comments

[Scott Barton]

I've read Death by Meeting and thought it was a great book. I recommend it wholeheartedly. It's also told as a fictional account. The story can be pretty cheesy at times, but the message of how to stimulate effective meetings is pretty clear.