It’s January 1, and one of my New Year’s resolutions is to learn to say “no” more often and more effectively. To accomplish this, I’m reading several books on delegation. This book, short and inexpensive, seemed like a good place to start.

Brian Tracy offers a broad overview of how to delegate and supervise work accomplished by a team. He communicates his message in a clear, accessible, and succinct manner. The book offers a good starting point to learning how to supervise.

That strength is also its main weakness. Being so brief, it offers little in-depth treatment of any topic. It offers basically a week’s worth of introductory college lectures on the topic of delegation and supervision. It does not offer any specific ways to dive deeply into topics of interest. It does not provide any new research on the topic but merely restates existing knowledge earned mainly by personal experience. Experience is great and necessary, but I prefer it coupled with critical research and thinking. This brief book, though solid, simply lacks that aggressive approach to knowledge and prefers short anecdotes and one liners. ( )