Name: First, Break All the Rules
ISBN: 9781416502661

Marcus Buckingham

Curt Coffman

Provides insight into how great managers find, focus and keep talented employees.

What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

First, Break All the Rules

Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its revolutionary study of more than 80,000 managers in First, Break All the Rules, revealing what the world’s greatest managers do differently. With vital performance and career lessons and ideas for how to apply them, it is a must-read for managers at every level. The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why. Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide variety of situations. Some were in leadership positions. Others were front-line supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies; others were key players in small entrepreneurial companies. Whatever their situations, the managers who ultimately became the focus of Gallup’s research were invariably those who excelled at turning each employee’s talent into performance. In today’s tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. The front-line manager is the key to attracting and retaining talented employees. No matter how generous its pay or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer. The authors explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations for him or her — they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps; how they motivate people — they build on each person’s unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses; and, finally, how great managers develop people — they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. And perhaps most important, this research — which initially generated thousands of different survey questions on the subject of employee opinion — finally produced the twelve simple questions that work to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. This book is the first to present this essential measuring stick and to prove the link between employee opinions and productivity, profit, customer satisfaction, and the rate of turnover. There are vital performance and career lessons here for managers at every level, and, best of all, the book shows you how to apply them to your own situation.

Heiki Riesenkampf

Two starts alone for the amazing set of 13 questions to measure employee satisfaction with. There were some other golden nuggets, but they were badly or too shortly explained.

Omar

This was a very informative book for me as a first-time manager. The key insights that I walk away with are: 
1. There's a difference between skills, knowledge and talent. As a manager, recognize that someone's talents are usually enduring and extremely difficult to change, so make sure you select for talent and cast each person to the right match based on talents. Skills and knowledge you can then teach. 
2. We often confuse what is a skill vs a talent. Talents are ingrained ways of doing things that come naturally, and these are different and unique at the individual level. 
3. For talents, focus on developing the strengths. Remediating weaknesses, as they relate to talent, is often a waste of time and energy.  

Many other things I found to be insightful and useful, but the above I'd say was the gist of what most helped my thinking. The book also has great questions to use as a manager, and I've had some great discussions so far with a few I've tried. 

Maybe one day I'll feel comfortable enough managing people to no longer need it, but I expect to keep this book close to my desk as a reference for a while. 

First, Break All the Rules What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

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