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

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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.

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

It is good to see a business text written that does not profess and/or propagate the standard business rhythms rather prescribes to look into the natural rhythms that are around us and mold managements processes to capitalize on these.

If you are in the position to hire and/or manage employees, this book is a must read. It reaffirms, what most managers know but are scared to do because of corporate/company correctness. It gives a different perspective, on turning employee's talents into performance.

There were no hidden agendas; just a lot of laughs. They also understand the importance of getting the most out of people's inherent skills, rather than trying to mold them into something they aren't. When I was a young management trainee with Enterprise Rent-a-Car (many years ago), I was underpaid and overworked; but I loved my job. Micro-management and backstabbing proliferated. Here's How., How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business, and mine---Life Under the Corporate Microscope: A Maverick's Irreverent Perspective.This is a great place to start. We also did our jobs exceptionally well; from my early days in the '70s, Enterprise grew to become the largest and most profitable car rental company in the world by the early '90s.Unfortunately, they grew too big for their own good. They understand the iconoclast brings forth positive change; the innovation necessary to keep moving forward.

Since the publication of this gem, several other excellent books have come out which support the authors' findings, and they too, should be read in tandem: Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance, The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. I also respected the young, free-wheeling and fun-loving management style the company cultivated; everybody seemed to like everybody else. It's simple common sense, but it's rarely displayed in the vast wasteland of corporate America. By the end of the '90s, a definite culture of fear permeated the organization. I made it through the first year of the current millennium, relieved to be out of that type of environment.Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman's wonderful book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, examines the issue of what the truly successful managers accomplish in the area of employee engagement and productivity. It's Grown. It certainly captures the essence of what the great managers accomplish; and it's a message that needs to be received, loud and clear, by the pompous CEOs of corporate America; the sooner the better.

This is a management approach that all levels of managers need to grow their management skills.

I identified some of the hiring mistakes I have been making. I'm very big on leadership, but I've always had trouble wrapping my head around the concept that management is leadership's less important cousin. Mark Sanborn first brought this notion to the surface with his book, "You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader", but this book really expands the concept. They are clearly two distinct and separate skill sets that cannot be compared. It probably is. FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman has helped me to understand what I already knew but was failing to identify and that is, years of experience is worthless if the person doesn't have the talent to do the job.

This book is the result of the Gallop Organization's study of over 400 companies and 80,000 managers. The jacket touts it as the largest study of its kind ever conducted. Before you interview another applicant, read this book. I write a lot of training material for my people and I have garnered enough material from this book to last for several months. I have found this be a fantastic tool to identify areas were I excel and areas where I need to improve, as a business manager. This study succinctly identifies some of the differences in the two and clearly illustrates that comparing leadership to management is like comparing apples to oranges. I know I will reference this book often.

Boiled down to its essence, the study revolves around 12 questions for employees. Primarily, I've been hiring for experience and not hiring for talent. For me, a good measure of a book is the amount of notes in the margins. The study reveals some interesting break-throughs in how great managers can influence and form great companies. I employ 48 people and when I gave the questionnaire to them, it revealed my strengths and weaknesses with some very surprising results. This one is cover to cover.