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Summary: The most on-point study on management the past 25 years!
Review: For the first time, the authors went to the source of what makes good employees and keeps them: first-line managers and supervisors. And what a revelation...the same things 'excellent' managers and supervisors knew all along. But now there are facts to back up the success of the best managers, facts that leaders can't ignore today, especially those leaders that question the value of the first-line manager and supervisor. From lower turnover to higher productivity, the talents of the best managers now have specific results to identify them with. And the authors have identified information that can be used in the future to select the best first-line suprvisor and manager, information that all businesses, no matter the industry or size of the organization, can use to be more successful and positively affect their bottom line.Proably one of the most relevant management books the past 25 years! Take heed senior leaders: first-line supervisors and managers are the key to your success and the key to finding the right supervisor and manager is in this book!
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Summary: Research that backs up the rules you want to break.
Review: This book uses a massive amount of research to back-up the rules I love to break. Not everyone is treated equally so try and find the best fit. Spend the most time with your best performers. And set clear objectives and let the employee set the steps. I highly suggest it for anyone looking to become a great manager.
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Summary: Things always felt now explicitely valuated
Review: Good managers always feel how they should manage. Good personell always feel how they should be managed. Thanks to Gallop and some 80.000+ great managers Marcus & Curt provide the 'implicit rules' in very explicit form. Not only does this book show what great management is all about, but it also shows you how to get there fastest. And this all not based on guru-theory or academic vision but on hard research from real life. It helps get structure in offering and demanding good management. It is a good book for everybody who either wants be a great manager of be managed greatly. Good buy!
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Summary: Blows the lid off "conventional" management rules!
Review: I have just been promoted to a supervisory position. This book I found initally at the library. I read it in one day - couldn't put it down! I then purchased a copy for our management team and they are now enjoying it as much as I did! I am purchasing an additional copy for my personal library. What excited me the most was reading all the thoughts, feelings and ideas I had personally experienced, but which were not "conventional management thoughts" expressed as being not only normal, but preferred by the top managers! The first thing I did during a meeting with my new team members was give them the first six questions mentioned in the book. I informed them that THAT was my job as their new supervisor. A good one-hour discussion followed. This is a great book - please read it with an open mind if you are "conventional". It is common-sense guidelines for getting the most from your team and from yourself and in turn, for your company.
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Summary: Throw away all your other books on management!
Review: And just keep this one. What a wonderful concept! Focus on each individual's strengths and build on them instead of trying to remediate weaknesses. And a quantifiable measure of leadership effectiveness directly tied to business results. Buy it, read it, and recommend it to everyone you know in a leadership position!
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Summary: Getting to warp speed
Review: An insightful guide to leveraging people's talents to drive better business results, this book finally brings to the business arena what good coaches have done for a long time: fit people to the right roles and develop them in them. In an era where speed to market is increasingly critical, we need information like this that will help put people on development paths of least resistance so they can reach their stride quickly. Getting more and more people on this type of path will get the organization to warp speed. This book is a great complement to Daryl Conner's Managing at the Speed of Change and Steve Levit's Quality is just the Beginning.
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Summary: Agree with a previous reviewer
Review: I liked the book and learned from it. However, I agree with a previous reviewer who said that this book doesn't go far enough by addressing real-world leadership issues. I also recommend, like that reviewer, another outstanding and well written book also to supplement your skills and knowledge: it's called "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."
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Summary: Finally, hard numbers to support what we already know
Review: I agree with a lot of the book and disagree with some parts of it as well. The "breakthrough" for this book is that it puts hard numbers to measure the skills, talents and methods that we have already learned make the best managers and the healthiest workplaces. I hope this book stimulates some creative thinking among managers and leaders. I believe managers CAN be good leaders, and leaders CAN be good managers -- they don't have to be opposites. The book and its theories should NOT be taken as gospel or as the "only way" to do things, as the authors strongly caution. Each of us must find our own way to apply its information. Thanks to Gallup and the authors for their long-term dedication to investigating the simple every-day things.
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Summary: Not good enough
Review: It's fact-filled and timely, yet it doesn't get to the heart of why leaders are successful. It's a great complementary book to your library, but I suggest getting a more practical book that may help you at work. I suggest a book I also ordered from Amazon and I have ordered copies for Everyone in my department. Check out "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: The premise of this book is people can't change or get better. What we have to offer our employers are our innate "talents". Forget about augmenting your skills with training, in management or any other area. This is determinism carried to the extreme.
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