Book Review: First Among Equals: How to Manage a Group of Professionals

by Joe Wynne

March 18, 2002

You, like most other project managers, have probably struggled with your communication and interaction skills. You may have tried taking classes, been coached, watched videotapes, role-played and read articles. Yet, if you were like most, after all this you were still not able to solve your most intractable problems with people in the groups you manage.

This is partly because these classes and resources have not really been designed to meet your specific needs. They may have targeted supervisors in general, using safe, vanilla problem-solving strategies, sometimes based on the assumption that you are supervising employees with 1-2 years experience and low authority in the organization. They may have assumed you were a CEO or VP, with power and authority to change the organization by mandate. These resources were not designed to help you manage a group in today's work environment. So all your frustrations are not your fault after all!

At long last, there is an answer.