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First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
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Sales rank 545
Customers rating (based on 268 reviews)
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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.
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| Publisher | Simon & Schuster | | Release date | 05/1999 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $30 | | Our price | $19.8 (you save 34.00%) | | Used price | from $3.51 |
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 Some good general advice, but...
FDA probably spend less resources approving new drugs - in depth interviews with 80,000+ managers, 400+ companies and a billion customers (p.129). There are a lot of good common sense and conventional advice in the book. The authors have developed a 12-Steps program. In the book, these 12 questions are at the core of measuring and building up performance of Talents. Much of it has to do with the direct relationship between the employee and his/her immediate manager. Interestingly, the authors then spent the remaining chapters contradicting their own advice. A whole chapter was devoted to explaining how an educator's step-by-step descriptive program could never work. There can never be a "one best way" to achieve excellence. What about the 12 Questions ? Not only that you have to have all the steps, the authors insisted on the exact order to build up the fundamentals.
The authors described Talents as a "clash of chromosomes". The big idea was people don't change that much, you either have the talent for a certain role or you don't. Training will only have marginal success. This is probably the "Break all the rules" part of the book.
By the middle of the book I began to think the authors had been asking the wrong questions. Every single one of the 12 questions was about "I". There was no consideration of how an individual perform in a team environment. Business has gotten a lot more complex, no one person can do it all and team performance must take precedence. Putting the best talents together doesn't guarantee team success. If you believe group dynamic is what drive team excellence and high performance, you may have a hard time reconcile it with the focused advice for individuals.
BTW, a billion customers ? assuming an army of 100 interviewers, each taking 100 customers each day for 365 days a year, it would still take 273 "yrs" just to say Hi.
 Break the Rules
First Break All the Rules is an excellent book for managers and leaders. The people first view is what all companies need to implement. Treating people differently will land most managers in hot water - but it is critical to building a high performing organization. The book clearly shows that there is an "I" in TEAM. Gallup has an excellent interview that profiles people to fit an organization. More companies should implement the Gallup process to improve hiring the right person first.
 From reality to a conceptual model
This is a great book for two reasons:
First because it tests _theory over reality_, whereas the majority of business leadership books describe a theory that you, the manager, should test in your work environment and see if it suits your style.
Second, because it offers practical examples of how to apply certain tools to improve or to assess how you are doing in your leadership job.
Several ideas expressed are really against conventional rules eg. A manager should find work-around solutions to the weaknesses of a subordinate instead of fixing them, spend most of your time with your best employees, create heroes in every role and broadband compensation.
The book has a couple of repetitions of the same ideas here and there but it is not very annoying to the reader.
I recommend it to all intermediate (that have practiced leadership for a couple of years) managers of small to medium teams (5 - 20 persons) where still direct contact with all members of the team is possible.
Break All The Rules
Great book. I've purchased two to use in training two potential managers in my company.
One of the best management books out
First Break All The Rules is one of the best management books available. The content is fresh, counter-intuitive, practical, and easy to use. The research behind the content makes this book not only extremely valid but also substanial. This book needs to be read several times to really absorb the wisdom within.
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