tooo soft or too harsh bosses

People management is all to gether a different ball game .When transition happens in your career from technical to managerial role,people management plays pivotal role in your growth.In people management,its very important that people are happy as well as they are working properly.They must feel the ownership for their module and give their best shot.But can people management be learned through books.It comes only through experience.Generalization has no place in people management as different people behave differently in different circumstances.Soft skills play a major role when managing people.Tone, words should be carefully chosen .Words shall give feeling to subordinates that boss is happy or not but at the same time shall not demotivate them. Communication has to be precise and well thought of.Boss should not be too soft or too harsh.Too harsh bosses will make people run away and too soft bosses will not be able to push people to complete their work.Management schools can only suggest different techniques and no technique is perfect when dealing with people.To keep people happy and make them work with ownership is real skill set.If one has devolped it over a period of time,it will definately take one to great heights.