Rating: 
Summary: Crucial concepts
Review: This book shows us how crucial talented employees
as well as great managers are.Talented employees are those who can achieve excellence.
They are vital to sustained success. Great managers are
those able to select fot talent, motivate and develop
them which in turn can benefit the organisation as a
whole. Managers should learn this concept.
Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: This is a wonderful book, with wonderful info to help anyone with subordinates.
Rating:
Summary: A 'must read' for new managers
Review: This book takes the fact that we grow up always focusing on improving our weaknesses and proves through scientific data that we're dead wrong! It provides a well-lit path to execute the parts of the books you want to implement and gives great reasoning for why it is most important to focus on your employees' strengths, instead of trying to improve their weaknesses. A must read for all managers, but especially for new managers, before you get in too deep of a rut.
Rating: 
Summary: Cliche all the way
Review: This got so cliche that I couldn't even finish it! It's anecdotes only carry the concept so far before it gets ridiculous. Challenging the Stauts Quo is essential to staying on top of your business and there are some good concepts around that idea int his book but that could be captured in 100 pages. I'm afraid to start "Now discover your strengths."... Try "Management Challenges for the 21st Century" if you need some good ideas on where management is going...good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Key to Management Success
Review: I strongly recommend this book and "Winning at Mergers & Acquisitions" as two books that break the mold, open our eyes to new ways of doing things, and imbue the reader with actionable keys to success. The authors stress focusing on talent, defining goals, building upon strengths, and finding common ground for solutions (the right fit). Whether for management advancement or (in the case of Winning at M&A) leading change and integrating groups of people, the guidance in both of these books will help the reader drive corporate evolution. This is a great book that lets the genie out of the bottle in terms of staffing and hiring. If you read two books this summer, it should be these.
Rating:
Summary: Practical, focused, and based on a solid study
Review: This is a must for anyone who manages people. Lots of the book is common sense, but it's made practical by examples, organization, and the large, empirical study backing up the authors' recommendations.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for Great Managers
Review:
What rules do the great managers break? Identify an employee's strengths and weaknesses, and then try to develop and "pull up" the weaknesses. Wrong.
Marcus and Curt say to do four things differently:
1. Hire for talent (not experience).
2. Define the goals.
3. Focus on strengths (not weaknesses).
4. Find the right fit.
It sounds obvious, but it hasn't been for decades of management and leadership development.
• Mark Kelly, coauthor of MASTERING TEAM LEADERSHIP: 7 ESSENTIAL COACHING SKILLS
Rating:
Summary: Great management book
Review: If you're a manager, if you work in human resources, or if your company hires managers and you are seeking criteria to hire great managers, you'll want to give "First, Break All The Rules: What The World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman a read.
After extensive research, Buckingham and Coffman summarize the twelve key factors in retaining star employees. If employees can answer the below questions affirmatively, you probably have a strong and productive workplace: "1) Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2) Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3) At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4) In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
5) Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6) Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7) At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8) Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?
9) Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10) Do I have a best friend at work?
11) In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?
12) At work, have I had the opportunities to learn and grow?" ("First, Break All The Rules: What The World's Greatest Managers Do Differently")
What about stock options, high pay, and other more obvious benefits? Don't employees want those also? Yes. However, Buckingham and Coffman point out that those benefits attract all people, including what they classify as ROAD warriors (Retired While On Active Leave or unproductive employees). The above twelve factors attract and keep productive employees. So, can anyone become a great manager? According to the research of Buckingham and Coffman, probably not. They found that among great managers, those who are effective catalysts for turning employee potential into production, the motto is "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." Buckingham and Coffman found that the greatest managers make a clear distinction between knowledge, skills, and talent, where talent is defined as natural recurring patterns of thought within a person. While knowledge and skills can be taught, the greatest managers know that talent cannot be taught. A key of management success is finding the right kind of person for any given job. Each person has a unique set of talents and proclivities making them unique. This set of talents defines who the person is and, more importantly, the kinds of work the person will enjoy. What about the various self-help and self-improvement programs used by companies today? Buckingham and Coffman say that most great managers dismiss them as ineffective. You can't just teach employees "the nine habits of an effective life" and expect them to excel. Buckingham and Coffman explain that each individual's brain is uniquely wired. Performance is in the synapses, or the connections between a person's brain cells. This develops in early childhood. When a child grows, many brain cells exist. There are relatively few connections between the cells. Certain pathways between various groups of brain cells will be strengthened as the child grows. Other pathways will rarely be used. These seldom used pathways and cells will be pruned by the brain. The result? Some people will be great at strategic thinking. Others will struggle with strategic thinking. Some people will have a talent for mathematics. Others won't. Some people will be naturally empathetic and verbally fluent. Not so for others. Trying to make someone function in an area his or her brain hasn't developed will lead to stress, low satisfaction, and, probably, on-the-job failure. But, putting someone in a role where he/she is naturally wired will probably lead to satisfaction and competency. What about simple roles that "anyone should be able to do." Roles people are in only because they need a job and hope to leave as soon as possible? This is a flaw in manager thinking. Disparaging any role within an organization is wrong. Rather, great managers recognize greatness and excellence in any role, even if it is usually considered a common job. Some people will have the talent to do that job while others won't. Buckingham and Coffman criticize the conventional career path of promoting people out of roles in which they excel and moving them into roles in which they struggle. The authors say it is foolish to reward excellence in a role by removing the person from the role. For example, not everyone has the talent or the desire to be a manager. The talent to be a great computer programmer will not be the same talent needed to be a systems analyst or project manager. "First, Break All The Rules" gives solid advice about finding people suited to a given role and, then, managing them effectively. This applies to all roles, including management. Are you a potentially great manager? Do you have the talent and recurring patterns of thought to manage others effectively? I'll leave you with a question asked by Buckingham and Coffman: Do you feel respect and trust must be earned by your employees? Great managers and average managers answer this question differently. Don't feel bad if you get the answers "wrong" and answer differently from the greatest managers. Maybe, you're a better strategic thinker than a manager, for example. I highly recommend "First, Break All The Rules" Peter Hupalo, author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur"
Rating:
Summary: Where most corporations are NOT
Review: In the interest of large corporations everywhere - buy this book/CD and make it mandatory for your VP and higher folks in the next year. Take small steps and reap the rewards! After getting this audio cd, I eagerly popped it into my CD player on my agonizing drive to work - along the highway and about 20 minutes into the first CD I had what can only be a religious experience. This is what the apostles must have felt like when hearing Jesus the first time - not to blatantly blaspheme; I can honestly say this is CD represents exactly where my philosophy of management is right now, and exactly where the rest of corporate America is NOT. By living in a very technical position, most upper managers do not think past "what has worked in the past" - what a shame. While Buckingham points out there are a "few right ways", my peers do not see things this way. We (big business) would rather spend millions on an outdated, hierarchical amalgomous glob of outdated methods, than hire the right people for the right job and give them the tools needed to DO that job. Take heed! You need not follow the 7 or 12 step methods of "blah-blah-blah" that Stu Whateverhisnameis says is essential - value the uniqueness of employees and managers. Don't push in what is not there, but draw out what IS there. The right person for the right job is the simplistic answer - so why don't we do it? Buckingham and Coffman identify the common sense values that we've been missing in big business - by good old-fashioned hard work with over 400 corporations. This isn't just a "must read" - this book should be subscripted with the title - "Thought processes for the mentally indigent corporate executive".
Rating:
Summary: Common sense leadership
Review: First Break all the rules addresses leadership from a common sense perspective. The twelve questions that reflect on your ability to effect productivity at the most intimate level of any process (the individual team member), are the common thread for discussion throughout this book. With level of productivity as the measuring stick, leaders are encouraged to ask themselves if among other things, they provide direction, praise, materials, support, guidance, and opportunity for growth. Buckningham and Coffman assert that good leaders don't try to make a silk purse from a sows ear. They suggest that you hire a sows ear where you need one and find silk to make the purse that you need. They contend that you can't change human nature, so why try. Trying to fill a deficit is more work than working with the positive aspects of your organization. The authors also assert that good managers focus outwardly for change, and ask "why not." They focus on the strengths and manage around weaknesses. Good leaders know what types of talents that are needed at various levels of an organization; recruit to fill these positions, and develop those that you recruit. The most useful part of this book is based on the lessons that mom taught you. Be nice. Treat people as individuals. Be flexible. Assert authority when necessary but more often than not, take a personal interest in those who are in control of how well your organization will measure up.
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