The Invisible Spotlight: Why Managers Can't Hide

Wasserman and Katz make a compelling argument that all managers work in the heat of an invisible spotlight where their every word and deed are scrutinized by employees. Remarkably, most managers are unaware of this reality. As a result, they underestimate the impact of the passing moments that are at the heart of their management relationships.

The authors tell illuminating stories from their nearly 40 years as consultants about management successes and misadventures in the unseen spotlight. Each story acts like a mirror, reflecting the reader’s own management challenges. The authors’ realistic observations and insights gained as “intimate outsiders” enrich the book’s lessons.

The Invisible Spotlight offers a fresh, practical perspective on building sound management relationships. The messages are intelligent, often provocative, and always no-nonsense. The reader will find it easy to think through ideas and practices central to enlightened management. For example:

• The management role does not come naturally. Instincts and reflexes alone can be as self-defeating as they are useful. Management requires practice, discipline, and self-reflection.

• If the foundation of the management relationship is solid, the manager is doing something right; if it fails or falters, the manager is doing something wrong. In this sense, managers are architects of the relationships they form with their employees.

• People don't change when they’re comfortable; they change when they’re uncomfortable. Carefully orchestrating moments of discomfort is an integral part of effective and humane management.

• More thought than managers ever imagined goes into the art of recognition and encouragement.

• No paint-by-numbers approach to managing will protect managers from missteps. The challenge is to recognize and recover from them, and it’s one of of the hardest challenges to address with grace.

The Invisible Spotlight: Why Managers Can’t Hide is a hard look at the soft side of management.

CRAIG WASSERMAN, Ph.D. As a management consultant, trainer and lecturer since 1976, Craig has left consultant-speak behind to focus in common sense ways on the uneasy, unfamiliar moments that managers encounter as they develop relationships with their employees. He helps managers explore their ultimate responsibility for making these critical organizational relationships work. He shows managers how to deal head-on with their internal apprehensions and external realities, how to master the tasks that are especially awkward for them and how to perform as intelligent, practical leaders. Craig earned his degrees from The American University in Washington, D.C.: a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Development, a Master of Education in Counseling, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Counseling Psychology. He followed these studies with a year's Post Doctoral Internship at the University of Maryland, and immediately cofounded Wasserman/Katz. He took a two and a half year sabbatical from the firm to work as Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Development at Browning Ferris Industries. Today Craig splits his time between Steamboat Springs, Colorado and Houston, Texas with Kathleen, his wife of twenty seven years.

DOUG KATZ, M.A. For almost four decades, Doug has been advising managers on the most intelligent ways to steward their organizations and navigate their relationships with employees. In addition to his consulting work, Doug is often retained to facilitate meetings and conferences addressing controversial issues. He has participated in a fifteen year study of national employment trends to help his clients prepare for emerging workforce challenges. He was a guest instructor on Business Ethics in the University of Maryland's Honors Program and has served on the Boards of The Grauer School, the Pretrial Justice Institute, IDC Marketing, Inc., and Red Shark Technology. JamArtz (jamartz.com) is a communication design studio, that Doug launched in 1990. The studio creates identity systems, marketing copy, fundraising communications, poster art, and signage for local, regional and national clients. Doug earned Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in Clinical Psychology from American University in Washington, DC. and was awarded an NIMH Clinical Training Fellowship. Upon graduation he served as an editorial consultant and soon after co-founded Wasserman/Katz. Doug lives in San Diego, California with his wife of thirty five years.