Location
Home ›
Books ›
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

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

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.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their 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. Buckingham and Coffman 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.

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

Actions

Book Info

Authors: Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman
Binding: Hardcover; 255 pages
Publication Date: 2/14/09
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0684852861
Bookhuddle Average Rating: (4.5)
Amazon.com^® Average Rating: (4.5)

Similar Books

The most similar books

Reviews

There are no reviews. Be the first to add a review!

Number of Reviews: 268, Amazon.com^® Average Rating:

(4.5)

(5) Break the Rules

First Break All the Rules is an excellent book for managers and leaders. The people first view is what all companies need to implement. Treating people differently will land most managers in hot water - but it is critical to building a high performing organization. The book clearly shows that there is an "I" in TEAM. Gallup has an excellent interview that profiles people to fit an organization. More companies should implement the Gallup process to improve hiring the right person first.

(5) Break All The Rules

Great book. I've purchased two to use in training two potential managers in my company.

(2) Some good general advice, but...

FDA probably spend less resources approving new drugs - in depth interviews with 80,000+ managers, 400+ companies and a billion customers (p.129). There are a lot of good common sense and conventional advice in the book. The authors have developed a 12-Steps program. In the book, these 12 questions are at the core of measuring and building up performance of Talents. Much of it has to do with the direct relationship between the employee and his/her immediate manager. Interestingly, the authors then spent the remaining chapters contradicting their own advice. A whole chapter was devoted to explaining how an educator's step-by-step descriptive program could never work. There can never be a "one best way" to achieve excellence. What about the 12 Questions ? Not only that you have to have all the steps, the authors insisted on the exact order to build up the fundamentals.

The authors described Talents as a "clash of chromosomes". The big idea was people don't change that much, you either have the talent for a certain role or you don't. Training will only have marginal success. This is probably the "Break all the rules" part of the book.

By the middle of the book I began to think the authors had been asking the wrong questions. Every single one of the 12 questions was about "I". There was no consideration of how an individual perform in a team environment. Business has gotten a lot more complex, no one person can do it all and team performance must take precedence. Putting the best talents together doesn't guarantee team success. If you believe group dynamic is what drive team excellence and high performance, you may have a hard time reconcile it with the focused advice for individuals.

BTW, a billion customers ? assuming an army of 100 interviewers, each taking 100 customers each day for 365 days a year, it would still take 273 "yrs" just to say Hi.

Amazon.com

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman expose the fallacies of standard management thinking in First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. In seven chapters, the two consultants for the Gallup Organization debunk some dearly held notions about management, such as "treat people as you like to be treated"; "people are capable of almost anything"; and "a manager's role is diminishing in today's economy." "Great managers are revolutionaries," the authors write. "This book will take you inside the minds of these managers to explain why they have toppled conventional wisdom and reveal the new truths they have forged in its place."

The authors have culled their observations from more than 80,000 interviews conducted by Gallup during the past 25 years. Quoting leaders such as basketball coach Phil Jackson, Buckingham and Coffman outline "four keys" to becoming an excellent manager: Finding the right fit for employees, focusing on strengths of employees, defining the right results, and selecting staff for talent--not just knowledge and skills. First, Break All the Rules offers specific techniques for helping people perform better on the job. For instance, the authors show ways to structure a trial period for a new worker and how to create a pay plan that rewards people for their expertise instead of how fast they climb the company ladder. "The point is to focus people toward performance," they write. "The manager is, and should be, totally responsible for this." Written in plain English and well organized, this book tells you exactly how to improve as a supervisor. --Dan Ring

Product Description

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.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their 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. Buckingham and Coffman 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.