Summary: “It soon became clear that my best resource for managing Angel would be, unexpectedly, the six decades of experience I had in a variety of management positions and the principles I had learned in the process.” All I Know About Management I Learned from My Dog, page 10 How a successful and innovative manager approaches his or her job is more often than not inspired in the most unique and unusual ways. For Chip Conley, author of Peak, it was Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. For Martin P. Levin, it was his dog. When he adopted Angel, he thought that a bond would be cultivated easily and naturally. He was wrong. The bonding process with Angel would prove to have parallels to his many years of business management. Both Angel and his prior work experience would heavily influence Levin’s book All I Know About Management I Learned from My Dog, and its Four Golden Rules of Management: Rule 1: Trust and Leadership Rule 2: Communication Rule 3: Problem Solving and Decision Making Rule 4: Perseverance While the rules are simple to remember, like anything, seeing results in your professional life will take a great deal of care and effort, just as it did with Angel. Golden Egg Build a Foundation of Trust “If a manager can develop trust, it will lead to corporate excellence, provided he is able to communicate effectively, make the right decisions, and above all, persevere.” All I Know About Management I Learned from My Dog, page 11-12 Fostering a sense of trust is at the heart of All I Know About Management I Learned from My Dog. All management, whether of people or dogs, begins with a foundation of trust. Levin, who was admittedly “getting a failing grade in grief management” after the death of his beloved wife, was persuaded by his therapist to get a dog. So, it was with some trepidation that he visited his local SPCA. Shortly thereafter Levin left with Angel, a beautiful golden retriever/virgule chow mix. On the car ride home Angel sat in the backseat, shivering with fear. “When I decided to adopt a dog by the name of Angel,” Levin writes, “I thought this would be an interesting but not very challenging experience. Bad judgment.” The SPCA’s policy is such that Levin came to adopt Angel knowing virtually nothing of her previous history. He would later learn that Angel had runaway after suffering abuse and had fought for survival before being picked up by the SPCA. (When the SPCA found Angel, they contacted her owner who said that her husband had abused the dog. Heartbroken, she gave Angel the greatest gift all by refusing to allow her to return to that toxic environment.) The dog, understandably, was not quick to trust. For Levin the answer to making any sort of headway with Angel came from his six decades of management, and how he dealt with the teams he worked with. GEM # 1 Expert Advice: Proceed with Caution “The resourceful manager should be able to deal with an uncomfortable result and place the event in the ‘do not repeat’ file. The expert should not be faulted because this event was out of his control.” All I Know About Management I Learned from My Dog, page 29-30 Expert advice is important, and should be solicited, especially when you are new at something, as Levin was in trying to gain the trust of his formerly abused dog. But Levin cautions that when moving ahead with any advice it is best to use your own judgment, as the results are ultimately on your shoulders. He provides an example of Angel’s first plane ride to illustrate his point. For any dog to be allowed to fly, they must be certified “fit to fly.” While getting the necessary documents, the veterinarian suggested bringing along Xanax (yes, Xanax) to give to Angel in case she showed signs of anxiety. “I thought that given the trust we had been developing between us, she would feel comfortable with me and Paula [on the plane ride],” writes Levin. Still, he took the advice of the vet and brought the pills along with him. Angel,
