Rating: 
Summary: Wow! A must read!
Review: I got this book for the holidays and couldn't put it down! It realy disputes conventional wisdom and provides practical, sensible and innovative ideas about how to manage others and get the most out of your career. It's a must read!
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Summary: A breakthrough book essential for managers
Review: This book really helped me to better understand myself as a manager and how I can be both more efficient and effective. Buckingham and Coffman have provided fascinating new ideas in a book that is entertaining and easy to read.It was a great help and I highly recommend it to others.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: What a waste of my time. Step #1 in becoming a better manager is to skip this book.
Rating:
Summary: Same Old thing
Review: Overall, I'm quite disappointed about this book. I think this book title and subtitle are great, especially subtitle - 'based on in-depth interviews by the Gallup organization of over 80,000 managers in over 400 companies - The largest study of its kind ever undertaken', and I bought this book because of this subtitle and Gallup brand name. Yet I found the content of this book has a huge gap vs. its subtitle, or I should say the book almost didn't provide any new learning for me. The key point of the book is 'poeple development is important'. It can be summarized as the mantra it quoted: 'People don't change that much. Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.' However, this is really nothing new. The four keys which authors suggested are not new either, such as focusing on strength instead of on weakness. I think the authors just used 80,000 manager interviews learning to endorse 'people development is important' and 'respect individuality'. Though it might be faithful to the research result, it didn't help me. It's kind of like telling you 'by interviewing 80,000 managers, we found innovation is important.' It's true but I knew it already. Net, recommend NOT to buy.
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Summary: An insightful look into successful management practices
Review: I suppose it's not surprising that I found "First, Break All the Rules" such a good read: It codified many of my own practices developed intuitively over the years. At the same time, I found many suggestions that I plan to incorporate into my management style. If you've ever been asked to pound a square peg into a round hole, this book will give you good ammunition to battle the conformists.
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Summary: "Why can't the bad ones learn?"
Review: Very interesting book that provides insight into why the good ones do, and equally insightful as to why the bad ones don't.
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Summary: A New Age of Management
Review: Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman reinforce what I already knew was true to begin with: the company that I work for, and the majority of other companies, are managed ineffectively. What seperates the great manager from the mediocre manager is the ability to recognize and develop talented individuals from the initial point of employment. Where I work, this simple policy is ignored. My company fails from the start by promoting employees to managerial positions based on personal friendships, political motives, and the understanding that the new manager will adhere to the rules. I'm sorry to say it, but I have witnessed several instances in my place of employment where an individual who was talented, but independant in his/her thinking, was refused promotion to management because it was feared that he/she was the type who would break the rules. After the newly hired manager takes over, there are inevitable problems. My company tries to train the new manager to perform his/her role effectively, but there isn't much improvement because the individual was miscast from the beginning. The talent to manage was never there. And, because the manager is incompetent, he/she is likely to hire employees who are also incompetent. These employees eventually become inept, but loyal, managers in the future. The chain remains unbroken. This book also speaks out about the importance of rewarding positive behavior. I can recall several occasions where rewards have been given to weak performers. I have been highly critical of this practice, but it still continues. The reason for rewarding bad behavior, I'm told, is to motivate below average employees. This is counter-productive for two important reasons: First, it encourages the weak performer to remain weak; second, it frustrates and discourages the excellent employees. Why should a highly motivated employee waste his or her time if a weak employee gets the recognition? Conventional wisdom, and the ineffective management that it breeds, are going to take a good amount of time to change. My company is notorious for resisting change, promoting based on political reasons, and then refusing to remove inept managers from their positions. These "inner circles", "buddy systems", etc, are commonplace throughout corporate America. My company is not the only one with these problems. The majority of companies have the same problems. I think the time has come for management to drop these conservative ideas and pave the way for a new, aggressive approach to management. The results of great management are too obvious to ignore any longer.
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Summary: Superb analysis
Review: This is a fresh approach to what is happening in the real world. Congrats to the authors on a wonderful work. Also recommend a companion book that also refreshing: Ponder's "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."
Rating:
Summary: A Required Reading for Every Manager
Review: This book should be manditory reading for anyone in a management position from the Chairman of the Board down to front-line managers. This book provides a real world understanding of why some people excel at management and achieve superior results and why others just muddle along. The fact that the authors can back up their analysis with real statistics only adds to the credibility. This book will eventually end up on Fortune's required reading list along with Drucker's Concept of the Corporation and Sloan's My Years With General Motors.
Rating:
Summary: This book is right on.
Review: This book is right on and will inspire any business person to be original. If you like this book try Business Not As Usual by Hugh Aaron,an author and CEO with first hand experience.
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