Mike Young has been in management for over fifty years, working in one of the toughest industries there is. Over the course of those five decades, Mike made notes on his observations about management techniques he used routinely and those practiced by other successful managers, and - most importantly - the decisions he made and why he made them. When he wrote something down, he was forced to ask himself if those decisions made sense in the big picture of management. The compilation of those notes is Digging Deeper; a book on management, managers, how managers can impact the function of their specific operations, and how a manager's actions impact his or her own development. It is intended to focus in on the areas where even the best trained managers can stumble; and how they can improve. Mike's specific industry was mining, but Digging Deeper is a practical, common sense guide for veteran and aspiring managers in any industry who want to mine their potential.
About the Author: Michael Young was born in Kirkland Lake, Northern Ontario, in 1942. His family moved to the Toronto area when he was three years old and stayed in that area until 1953, when the family moved to Blind River, Ontario, where his father was made manager of the first of multiple uranium mines in the newly discovered Elliot Lake mining district. Mike spent the last three years of high school at a boarding school in Southern Ontario, returning home by train on holidays. He followed his father's footsteps to Michigan College of Mines (now Michigan Technological University) where he received, like his father, a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering in 1965. Mike married in 1964, and upon graduation, he and his wife moved to an underground mining operation in Virginia, where all three of their children were born. While in Virginia, he attended graduate school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he earned his Masters of Engineering degree. In 1970 the family moved to Missouri to one of the major new underground lead/zinc mines in the "New Lead Belt." This mining district pioneered some of the most important underground mining technologies of the time. He started as the Production Engineer for the underground mine operations, and left in 1985 as the General Manager. In 1985 he took a headquarters position in New Jersey (eventually transferring to Maryland) as Director of Manufacturing for a mining/manufacturing company that operated four surface mines with associated manufacturing facilities. In 1995 he took the position of Vice President of Operations with the Canadian division of a major US gold mining company. He and his wife moved to northern Washington State, and he commuted to his office in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was responsible for four underground mines in British Columbia and Ontario, and was on three mining company boards. In 1998 he resigned from that position, and, as a result of his wife's ill health, decided to not pursue another full-time position. He now resides in central Wisconsin, and is currently consulting in the mining industry.