Looney and I were exchanging facts about our reading habits in his post The Life Of The Admiral Christopher Columbus, and he had this to say in his response to my comment.
“Regarding management books, I did read some of this material many years ago. My career trajectory has involved changing to smaller and smaller companies, so that now I am little more than a family business. There is no point in buying a management book to tell me how to handle my wife!”
I could not agree more. I have had access to some excellent Management Education formal and informal and I have not been able to learn this particular talent. In fact, I do believe that it is not possible to learn and it is not possible to “handle” one’s wife.
Having been a corporate animal starting from a Cockroach and rising up to Board level appointments and General Management, I can vouch for this fact.
It is also a fact however, that men in general and Managers in particular, can learn a great deal from wives. I often used to tell my students whenever I was faculty in some training program or the other, that Management is something that nature hard wires into women who become wives.
Just look at all the things that they are expected to do. Number one, Man management, number two, Human Resources Management and after these vital activities, the list expands to Finance, Inventory Management, Production, Security, Hygiene, Training & Development of Human Resources, Hospitality Management, Quality control and Management in all production management, Rest and Recreation. Growth, Mergers and Acquisitions and so on so forth. They do not need MBA degrees from fancy Universities to handle all these matters. Given that, I would not dare to say that I can learn to handle my wife. I never could.
What says you Looney? And all the other men out there reading this? I dare say that all the women readers will add a few more insights, but it will be interesting to see what the men folk add.
And finally, Paddy, they make great front passenger seat drivers too!