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

Rating:
Summary: Proof Positive that Managers matter!
Review: I found this an immensely readable book, despite the fact its a "business book". Easy to skim, every chapter seemed bursting with information and ideas I can use. Most valuable for me: The 12 most important questions to ask to measure the strength of a workplace, linked to four business outcomes: productivity, profitability, employee retention and customer satisfaction. This book is about measuring Human Capital. AND it provides the numerical, statistical proof that people work for a company, but they LEAVE their manager. People don't change, but great leaders learn to use what's there. Four core activities of Leader Catalyst: Select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person. Great information on Performance Management, Hiring, Motivating and Developing. Template quality stuff. I give it an A+, great book. Pay attention, CEOs: Even if you don't have every senior manager read it, this book has tons of material you can mine for discussion and learning throughout the organization. And make sure your Chief People Officer and CFO read this.

Rating:
Summary: Follow the Four Keys and be a Great Manager!
Review: (email: [e-mail] )

"First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" is an excellent book, which will help not only the managers, but all other talented employees as well, who have the potential and will eventually become great managers. This book extols the wonders and potential of human resource development in organizations of all sizes.

The authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, based on Gallup's interviews over a period of 25 years with about 1 million staff and 80,000 managers from over 400 companies pinpoint "four keys" to evaluate the performance of an organization in general. This reflects the competence of the managers to get the best in terms of:

-Selecting the staff for talent (not just for experience, which can be acquired and updated with rapid change in technology), -defining the right results expected (and should be clearly understood by the individual), -focusing on strength of employees (leaving scope for their professional growth), and -finding the right fit for all of them.

How much successful the manager is with respect to these four keys, will be reflected in terms of performance in assignments or projects the company has undertaken.

I am a firm believer that employees will do what you pay them to do (in terms of responsibility and recognition, scope for professional growth, appreciation and salary).

The authors reach the conclusion that a company that lacks great frontline managers will bleed talent (or, will produce 'talented deadwoods'), no matter how attractive the compensation packages are! Why should a highly motivated employee waste his or her time if a weak employee gets the recognition?

First-line supervisors and managers are the key to our success. They are the vital link between the top management and the staff. What separates the great manager from the mediocre manager is the ability to recognize and develop talented individuals right from the initial point of employment, and the key to finding the right supervisor and manager is in this book!

The book also describes: 'The Art of Interviewing for Talent' - 'Which are the right questions to ask?' 'Past performance is indicative of future performance'. But it is a must that assessors are more talented than the candidates are. If you promote or favor an employee mainly for his talents, let everyone else know about his capabilities and achievements over the others. Because it is possible that a group of some mediocre or manipulative managers, for their personal gains, form a cabal and help promoting "pseudo talents" and/or mask actual talents. They may do it by passing incorrect or "selective" information about their subordinates to the top management (or "by dragging and dropping" credits from deserving candidates to the 'favored ones'). The book, however, does not explicitly describe how the organization can be saved from such managers. "Favoritism" or "First, Break All the Rules", as advocated in this book, can be even detrimental, and may lead the organization to a vertical collapse. Here top management's role becomes crucial, as the staff may not come out openly due to some apprehension or someone's bad experience in the past. Also, while responding to any survey conducted, based on this book, it may not be suitable to reply those 12 questions just in 'yes' or 'no'.

Gallup's ideal symbolic manager 'Michael' says that a true manager is always in the process of learning new techniques. When asked about his best team, he gives credit to the entire team. This is the crux of success! He says, "A manager has got to remember that he is on stage every day. His people are watching him. Everything he does, everything he says, and the way he says it, sends off clues to his employees. These clues affect performance - never pass the buck, make few promises and keep them all."

This book, written in plain English, tells us how to make our workplace great. I strongly recommend you to read and absorb it.

Rating:
Summary: Right Measurement for Talent
Review: "First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" is an excellent book, which will help not only the managers, but all other talented employees as well, who have the potential and will eventually become great managers. This book extols the wonders and potential of human resource development in organizations of all sizes.

The authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, based on Gallup's interviews over a period of 25 years with about 1 million staff and 80,000 managers from over 400 companies pinpoint "four keys" to evaluate the performance of an organization in general. This reflects the competence of the managers to get the best in terms of: - Selecting the staff for talent (not just for experience, which can be acquired and needs be updated with rapid change in technology), - defining the right results expected (and should be clearly understood by the individual), - focusing on strength of employees (leaving scope for their professional growth), and - finding the right fit for all of them.

Since employees are individuals and to get best out of them, the manager has to spend lots of time with each of them, make them comfortable and listen to them. How much successful the manager is with respect to these four keys, will be reflected in terms of performance in assignments or projects the company has undertaken.

I am a firm believer that employees will do what you pay them to do (in terms of responsibility and recognition, scope for professional growth, appreciation and salary).

The authors reach the conclusion that a company that lacks great frontline managers will bleed talent (or, will produce 'talented deadwoods'), no matter how attractive the compensation packages are! Why should a highly motivated employee waste his or her time if a weak employee gets the recognition?

First-line supervisors and managers are the key to our success. They are the vital link between the top management and the staff. What separates the great manager from the mediocre manager is the ability to recognize and develop talented individuals right from the initial point of employment, and the key to finding the right supervisor and manager is in this book!

The book also describes: 'The Art of Interviewing for Talent' - 'Which are the right questions to ask?' 'Past performance is indicative of future performance'. But it is a must that assessors are more talented than the candidates are. If you promote or favor an employee mainly for his talents, let everyone else know about his capabilities and achievements over the others. Because it is possible that a group of some mediocre or manipulative managers form a cabal and help promoting "pseudo talents" and/or mask actual talents. They may do it by passing incorrect or "selective" information about their subordinates to the top management (or "by dragging and dropping" credits from deserving candidates to the 'favored ones').The book, however, does not explicitly describe how the organization can be saved from such managers. "Favoritism" or "First, Break All the Rules", as advocated in this book, can be even detrimental, and may lead the organization to a vertical collapse. Here top management's role becomes crucial, as the staff may not come out openly due to some apprehension or someone's bad experience in the past. Also, while responding to any survey conducted, based on this book, it may not be suitable to reply those 12 questions just in 'yes' or 'no'.

Gallup's ideal symbolic manager 'Michael' says that a true manager is always in the process of learning new techniques. When asked about his best team, he gives credit to the entire team. This is the crux of success! He says, "A manager has got to remember that he is on stage every day. His people are watching him. Everything he does, everything he says, and the way he says it, sends off clues to his employees. These clues affect performance - never pass the buck, make few promises and keep them all."

This book, written in plain English, tells us how to make our workplace great. I strongly recommend you to read and absorb it.

Rating:
Summary: What Insight!
Review: This book really made me see the error of our ways in most companies and with our management techniques. The book lives up to its title of breaking all the rules, but makes so much sense at the same time. For instance, the author tells us while most managers spend so much of their time with their poorer performers trying to fix them, great managers are spending their time with the best performers learning from them in order to hire for similar talents in the future. A must for anyone who is a manager of any size group or in any business.

Rating:
Summary: Defining a Talent v. a Skill? Help!
Review: .... Great book. It provides some quantification what many feel (or want to be) true.

It usefully separates, and gives needed recognition of the separate and necessary skills of Management (devalued in most books) versus Leadership (which despite being done to death in academic literature is still sadly lacking)

The problem I have is in applying the learning's: separating (native) talent from (learnable) skills.

The book seems to suggest that by the mid teens your talents are fixed...Training can add 10% to them (maybe?)

Perhaps I reject this determinist view for emotional reasons - I find it unacceptable to believe that people cannot significantly change themselves. I believe they can ...if they have both the will AND are given encouragement.

In my experience of managing people, I find the biggest thing holding people back is not just spotting & defining their talents, but rather getting people to BELIEVE in their own talents. (Maybe British University graduates are naturally less self confident than American MBA's? )

Most managers I have met don't help in this situation - they tend to look for and spot error / mistakes rather than things well done and to build on.

So my advice to anyone managing a bright, but maybe insecure, 20 something is not to assume that their life was written for them at 15, but to take the time to help them explore and discover themselves ... and help you work out how you can help them.

This , as the book indicates, takes time and discussion, but it is worth the effort for any manager who cares for the development of their people.

If "talent" is the ultimate driver, really take the time to understand it, before your employee (& or you) do less than full justice to what they have.

There are tools for this, but they are most often used to help employers rather than candidates. Companies that really want to make the most of their people may wish to pay for their employees to receive a (confidential if they desire) Myers Brigg or Hermann whole Brain assessments.

Universities should offer it to Year 2 students before they embark on, the often painful task of, deciding what it is they really want to do in their working life.

If they are anything like my kids, who have just graduated, they will be a bit uncertain and confused. Finding the "right job", as it was for me, more about pot luck than anything else.

From what I have said the authors may be able to put my talent set into their boxes - but the boxes they will ascribe me to me are not the place they would have put me at age 22 (I am now 49)

Maybe I have always been the same, but the diagnosis made of me by my first employer was very different. Thank goodness I followed my own instinct rather than the advice of this global multi- national who - after a battery of psychological and IQ tests suggested a role in Accountancy. (I built a successful career in Marketing & Advertising)

These comments are not so much a critique as a request for further clarification of "talent". Help me and other managers distinguish, and measure, talents & skills. (Maybe not a job for Gallop.)

If all managers focused the first 6 questions proposed by Gallop in a diligent way this would already be a major step forward for most businesses.

Rating:
Summary: Generally a worthwhile read
Review: I have been in management for a number of years and a lot of this book made sense to me as any decent management book should to an experienced manager. The "12 questions to ask employees" were very interesting to me as were the 4 keys to management. These were culled out of what appears to be reasonable research. The authors present as science and then spend a great deal of time on interpretation. I believe that their conclusions were not always fully supported by the research results.

It did present a lot of food for thought though.

Rating:
Summary: Reality vs. theory
Review: Great book and must read for any manager. No great revelations for an experienced manager who has had to deal with a multitude of situations. However, it's an awakening to our experiences and a realization that many of the old rules do not apply. Further, it offers sound advice that works in practice.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding and groundbreaking news
Review: The authors have done a top-knotch job at raising some key issues about what many people believe managers do and how they do it to get results. While many readers will question some of their ideas, it's refreshing to hear some researched and documented behaviors noted in the best managers.

The book is worth the money and I highly suggest it because it will do what books are meant to do: provoke you to think.

Also suggest Ponder's "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills" and other books by Peters and Covey.

Rating:
Summary: Choose Best Practices Over Academic Theory
Review: Management is one of those areas where academic theory and best practices on site often clash. The problem is that there are usually 99 theories (often provided by professors with limited experience) for every good study of outstanding practices by great business people. This book exhibits one of my favorite principles: Build around the strengths of people to get the right results. The results described in this book fit what I have observed works well in over 30 years as a management consultant. That is the reason why I often encourage new managers to get more experience by coaching children's sports teams. In that environment, you soon learn that building around the talent is a critical first step in making progress. Building an imaginary perfect team doesn't work, because you cannot find these perfect people to play the roles. On the other hand, a weakness of this book is that there are many other best practices that this book does not explore. For example, even the best talent will perform better if presented with timely and relevant information, knowledge, and focus. A book like The Balanced Scorecard gives you lots of insight into how to do that. Add lots of low-cost capital and an exciting purpose (see The New New Thing), and you will do even better. A potential misunderstanding of this book is that people cannot change or improve: That is simply not true, nor is it what this book means to argue. Rather the outstanding manager or leader must learn to combine many types of best practices to get the right result. For example, if you combine the lessons of this book with the lessons of Topgrading (the best practices for recruiting the right people for what your organization needs), you will get better results than if you used just one or the other book's lessons. Combine several best practices that are often not combined and you can exceed anyone's performance, anywhere. That's the real lesson I hope you draw from this excellent book and other outstanding ones like it that build on careful measurement of how to get the best results. Management needs to become more like medicine where clinical tests run by practicing doctors provide most of the insight for improvement, rather a philosophical debating society run by hypothetical thinkers. Other good companion books include The Fifth Discipline, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, The Dance of Change, The Living Company, and Moments of Truth.

Rating:
Summary: For Human Resources
Review: I liked the book, but at the same time i was disapointed. I liked it because it gives good insights to deal with company's staff. I was disapointed because went i bought the book I thought that I would learn some leader's secrets. Finally, it seems that a manager is the one who manage people well, and not the one who lead. Therefore to know leader's secrets i have to find another book.