Story

Marina is a new manager at a company that runs a restaurant referral website. One day, one of her reports quits with the parting words “I don’t want to work for you!” This leaves her with three remaining team members: Sengoku, who quietly does only what is assigned to him; Momota, who is raising a child and has limited working hours; and Kazuno, who has an easily bruised ego but lacks the ability to get things done.

Marina struggles to communicate with her team until one day, at a cooking class, she meets a man named Makita who gives her some valuable advice: “A manager’s only job is delegation.” Building on this insight, Marina begins assigning work according to each team member’s strengths and weaknesses, and gradually learns to nurture their abilities and unite the team toward a common goal.

Concepts and Theories

Many new managers are unsure how to develop the capabilities of their reports and increase team productivity. The shift in mindset from delivering results yourself to drawing results from a team can be challenging, and managers often feel tempted to take over tasks from team members and complete them themselves when things get difficult.

This book explains how to nurture individual team members by delegating work using a four-step process: Observation, agreement on goals, self-assessment, and feedback. Repeating these four steps helps employees develop their capabilities, making your team more productive.

The unique manga presentation makes its lessons about communication and real-life implementation clear and relatable for greater effectiveness.