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

"This book, based on twenty years empirical data, you have to love that. After first reading this book in 2006, my reaction was "MAN! This is a validation of what my mentors showed me". I have had some GREAT mentors during my career, both in the military and later, as a civilian. They taught me how to see things outside of conventional wisdom (not merely ignore that wisdom). If I may now offer further review: The following will comprise of my impressions of the Conventional vs. Revolutionary Key Approaches, offered on pages 66 and 67 offered in FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES (1999) by M. Buckingham and C. Coffman. Conventional Key: "Select a person based on his experience, intelligence, and determination". There is nothing wrong with this statement in of itself. Let's say that there is are two candidates, one external, and one internal for one Engineering Change Order Coordinator position and the enterprise software system being used is Oracle. The external candidate does not have experience with the specified software, however has written thousands of ECOs, as well as cause and effect reports for their department. The other candidate has experience with exact software, however only minimal similar report writing. If the manager chooses the internal candidate due to the software experience, it may work fine in the long run. It can prove to be a better selection tool for the manager to use the Revolutionary Key: "When selecting someone, they select for talent, not simply experience, intelligence, and determination". In this case, the external candidate has a proven talent for working with personnel from multiple departments, in order to complete tasks that come with ECO writing. This individual will may likely have skill sets can perhaps cross over with minimal system training. Conventional Key: "Set expectations by defining the right steps". Creating flowcharts to show the steps needed to complete a set of tasks is a good thing. Using the Revolutionary Key: "When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes, not the right steps", can prove better. Perhaps you still use Visio, but instead you reverse engineer the processes to find your prerequisites. Work the process backward, from your desired outcome, back to the start. Conventional Key: "Motivate the person by helping him identify and overcome weaknesses". This less politically correct method of evaluating an employee, still fits well for some of the workers that reported to me. Their request was for me to "Tell me what I am doing wrong, so I can fix it." Revolutionary Key: "When motivating someone, they focus on strengths not weaknesses". For the most part, this approach has been the norm for myself, and the people that worked for me. The reviews that I wrote were geared more towards professional development in fact. I will not manufacture a weakness in someone, when one is not present! With influence from a previous manager, I began to have group study with the shop, install, and service foremen. Instead of having them read a book, we each studied a chapter a week. Each week, a different person would be assigned the chapter, and would write, and hand out a worksheet with a set of questions a couple days before we met, and then the team would discuss the assignment. Conventional Key: "Develop the person by helping them learn and get promoted. Career path by default? There is a certain quaintness to the "paid your dues"Âpath. So, if the worker is one of the best, AND shows leadership potential, I would still recommend this process Revolutionary Key: When developing someone, they help him find the right fit not simply the next rung on the ladder. Truly a key point. Even if it is the "paid your dues path, finding there right fit, and then developing that individual to be able to handle the new level of responsibility. Talent: "A recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied." Three recurring patterns that I feel a supervisor should have, are Ethics, Responsibility, And Command. A fairly cut and dry selection for me, as my most important mentors in the military and in business, all have had these talents From the Striving Talents Ethics: A clear understanding of right and wrong, which guides your actions. Perhaps it is not telling your subordinate to lie to a supplier, or customer. Or maybe it is not being willing to have a good-old-boy network where you have your favorite workers stay in your office for extended meetings after lunch or smoke breaks with you, while the other workers are breaking knuckles turning wrenches. It is neither fair to the company, which expects work to be done during the periods that payroll is expected to compensate, nor those busting knuckles. Thank you for this book, Mr. Buckingham and Mr. Coffman."

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman's 'First, Break All the Rules' is a groundbreaking book that offers invaluable insights into effective management practices. As someone in a leadership role, I found this book to be incredibly enlightening and practical. Buckingham and Coffman challenge conventional management wisdom by identifying key principles that distinguish the world's greatest managers. Their approach is based on extensive research and interviews with top-performing managers, providing evidence-backed strategies for achieving exceptional results. What I appreciate most is the focus on strengths-based management; they argue convincingly that focusing on employees' strengths rather than weaknesses leads to higher engagement, productivity, and overall success. The book is well-structured, with clear explanations and actionable advice that managers can implement immediately. It's also filled with compelling stories and case studies that illustrate their principles in action. Whether you're a seasoned manager or new to leadership, 'First, Break All the Rules' offers a refreshing perspective and practical guidance that can transform your approach to management. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to elevate their managerial skills and create a high-performing team." This review emphasizes the book's research-based insights, practical advice on strengths-based management, clarity in presentation, and its potential to inspire positive changes in managerial practices, making it essential reading for anyone in a leadership role.

There is a race for talent in today's job market. Organizations are realizing more and more that their competitive advantage lies within those individuals interfacing with customers and other employees. A businesses' greatest asset is indeed the individuals of the organization. We, in training and development, have known this for a long time. Now, there is bottom line business language that helps others acknowledge and quantify the human asset. In my consulting practice I see more and more emphasis and investment in the developing and cultivation or leadership. In order for organizations to capitalize on their human assets, they must invest in the leadership teams who are managing talent. Recently facilitating a project for Innovative Training Strategies I was introduced to this book First, Break All the Rules. This book is rich with analogies, case studies, and practical information for any one who has more than one employee. Buckingham and Coffman present a business case for leadership development that is based on a Gallup survey of over a million employees and 80,000 managers from a vast range of companies and industries. I feel so strongly about this book for you as a business leader and in your organizations' success that I recommend it be a required reading for you and members of your leadership team. That said, my intent here is to share just a couple of the many learnings the book has to offer in order to peak your curiosity and hopefully intrigue you into making the time investment to experience this resource first hand. Today's companies are having a team of people look at benefit packaging and creating a company profile that is attractive to prospective employees-especially talented employees. One of the things that Buckingham and Coffman warn about is that many companies do things that are effective for all employees. From their research they were able to extract information that was especially true for talented employees. They determined "talented" employees as those who seemed to be the most productive in terms of productivity measures and customer feedback. (There is an intense appendix for those who require supporting facts and data.) What they found was this : talented employees need great managers. "The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor." So, while your company is spending a lot of resources on employee retention and recruitment, for a return on investment your company would be wise to concurrently develop the leadership team to be talent savvy. Employee Satisfaction is now on everyone's radar. Organizations want satisfied employees because satisfied employees = satisfied customers. Now that that is understood, how does an organization gage employee satisfaction? There is much offered by Buckingham and Coffman to support this critical question. Through their research they have been able to extract the 12 most effective questions to gear how satisfied your talent pool is: 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 opportunities to learn and grow. At first glance, I was surprised the first time I saw this list. Yet, when I thought about what is meaningful to myself as an employee, I nodded my head in agreement. Buckingham and Coffman explain what they learned from the process of gathering data from employees and how they determined these questions as being most effective for evaluating talent satisfaction. So, First get the book and take advantage of the research and learning provided by Buckingham and Coffman in First Break All the Rules. If time is an issue, the book is also available on audio cassette. Enjoy making positive impact on your employees and co-workers.

FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES "is the product of two mammoth research studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization over the last twenty-five years." Rather than just reporting isolated success stories the authors and their staff dug through their data looking for patterns and distinctions. "Conventional wisdom is comfortingly, deductively easy. The revolutionary wisdom of great managers is much more exacting. It demands discipline, focus, trust, and perhaps most important, a willingness to individualize. In this book, great managers present no sweeping new theories...All they can offer you are insights into the nature of talent...The real challenge lies in how you incorporate these insights into YOUR style, ONE EMPLOYEE AT A TIME, EVERY DAY." (emphasis mine). There's a lot of "meat" in this book that should be studied by every manager and aspiring manager. To summarize key points: seek and keep talented people, give them the tools and other assistance to make them stars. After exhaustive research, a core set of 12 questions answered by employees seemed to be the best indicators of outstanding management. Some of the questions seem a bit off-beat: "4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?" "10. Do I have a best friend at work?" Predictably items such as pay, benefits and senior management were not factors that had a bearing on superior management. People in outstanding organizations gave high scores on many of the 12 questions. Key discussions are on the distinctions between skills, knowledge, and talent. Skills and knowledge can be taught, talent is something innate. Someone can be given the information on how to type (knowledge) and then given exercises to practice (skill development), but not everyone will be able to type over 100 wpm due to differences in talent. There is a wide variety of talent in art, music, problem solving, etc.; additional training and practice will only go so far with those who lack talent in an area. A frequent management mistake is to try to get people to improve in areas where they lack talent such as the approach in many popular employee review processes. Breaking the Rules means building on strengths and capitalizing on them. The question comes up, what do you do about your star salesperson who doesn't submit their expense reports properly? Reprimand? Hardly. First confirm that they understand what's required and have the proper tools. Then if it's still not working, create an easy way for them to do it or have a clerical person do it for them. Attitude is another interesting component in that it can't be taught and only rarely can it be improved significantly. Companies should seek to hire honest people with good work ethics plus the appropriate talent- the skills and knowledge can be taught. Another interesting insight from the studies was that in numerous job functions the best and the worst performers shared some, but not all, traits. Both the best and the worst salespeople have call reluctance; the mediocre performers did not. Both the best and the worst nurses had a personal connection with their patients; mediocre nurses stayed aloof. What was important is what the top performers did about this strong emotional link; they used it to empower and motivate them. The poor performers used it to shrink from effective action. Those with no emotional attachment lacked the motivation to excel. From their research the authors present 4 management keys: Select for talent (not experience or intelligence) Define the right outcomes (not the steps) Focus on strengths (don't try to work on weaknesses) Find the right fit (don't keep promoting people out of positions they're strongest in) A typical question asked of great managers was: "You have two managers. One has the best talent for management you have ever seen. The other is mediocre. There are two openings available: the first is a high-performing territory, the second is a territory that is struggling. Neither territory has yet reached its potential. Where would you recommend the excellent manager be placed? Why?" The great managers generally answered this the same way, read the book to find out the answer - it's worth it!

A Different Way to Think About Management First, Break All the Rules challenges a lot of the conventional wisdom about being a “good boss.” Instead of focusing on fixing weaknesses, the book emphasizes identifying and developing people’s strengths. It’s built on extensive Gallup research, so it doesn’t just feel like opinion—it’s backed by data and real examples. What I appreciated most was how practical the ideas are. The sections on employee engagement and asking the right questions during performance evaluations gave me tools I could immediately use with my own team. It’s not a “quick tips” kind of book but rather a mindset shift that sticks with you.

I purchased this phone because of the other reviews about it and the specs: Android Lollipop, 13 mp camera, 16 gb on board memory, 2 gb of ram, Gorilla Glass 3, and the phone came with a screen protector, earbuds, and very respectable case which I am using. I am a Cricket Wireless subscriber and was able to just insert my SIM card and the phone worked immediately with no issues what so ever. I purchased and installed a 64GB micro SD card and inserted it as well. I did have a problem with the SD card install, I had to push it with a bit of force for contact between the phone and card to take place. It seemed like I had to push harder than I should. It is in and it works and the phone. The spec that was most critical to me was the dual SIM ability. I am going out of country for a couple months and wanted a phone that I could use to stay connected to family here with and also purchase an "Orange" pay-as-you-go SIM in Europe. Having the ability to have both SIMS in the phone was very appealing to me. Using the phone I've found it to work as a phone very well. The reception is good to very good and the sound is fine. I wear a hearing aid and am sensitive to poor quality sound and this passes muster for me. I've installed Pandora One and listen to music while doing yard work and have been able to pull in Pandora from a long distance from my router. The size of the phone is also a plus. I have installed the Kindle App and have read portions of a book on it with the phone and it is OK. If I were to have any issue with the phone it would be getting my fingers in front of the camera when I turn it horizontally to take a picture. I am getting used to finger/hand placement but it forces me to hold the phone by the edges when taking a picture horizontally and I am a bit concerned that I may drop it. I've owned many other Android phones that cost significantly more and find this phone to be of similar to better quality to more expensive phone brands and also the features of this phone outshine most others in this price range. I did a lot of research before buying this phone, comparing features, reading reviews, going to several phone stores to see what was out there, making sure it would work with my phone carrier (Cricket used to use a CDMA system but now as part of AT&T requires a GSM phone), etc. I've had it about a month now and If this were to get lost or stolen I would buy this phone again.

You need to read this book. "First, Break All the Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman is like a breath of fresh air for those of us navigating the unique challenges of managing and leadership. Buckingham and Coffman, backed by Gallup's extensive research, challenge the conventional wisdom of management and provide insights tailored to real-world situations. As someone in charge of a veterinary practice, I really appreciate how the book encourages breaking free from the one-size-fits-all approach to management. What made this book particularly valuable to me, is its emphasis on understanding and leveraging the individual strengths and talents of your team members. As I read through the engaging anecdotes and practical examples, I found myself repeatedly nodding along with the authors' perspectives. For a practice manager in a veterinary clinic, the book isn't just a theoretical guide; it's a hands-on toolkit for optimizing team dynamics. The focus on strengths rather than weaknesses is especially pertinent in an environment where each team member brings a unique set of skills and expertise. Whether you're a seasoned practice manager or relatively new to your role, "First, Break All the Rules" offers insights that resonate with the challenges of management and leadership. It's a must-read for anyone seeking a management approach that not only aligns with your profession but also brings out the best in your team.

On the surface it seems like this book disagrees with much of the self-help content out there. Mainly with their assertion that people don’t change. As I read further it seemed that they meant that as a manager you can’t force change on people, which I would agree with 100%. To have change happen people have to want to chance and be willing to do the hard work to get that change. Overall, the book has a bunch of useful content. Make sure that you put people in seats in your organization where their strengths are the needed strengths, not where their weaknesses are what should be strengths. Make sure you support them and regularly provide feedback for them. It’s a good management book, but suffers from some backpatting that seems to be there to impress people with their research techniques. They ‘discover’ stuff that is psych 101 content. If you’re reading it and think the discovered all the research techniques they claim to, know that they didn’t. They’re using all the normal tools that anyone would use to parse the data they have.

Interessante punto di visto sulle relazioni umane in azienda

Excellent ouvrage, une mine d'or pour la sagesse manageriale, basée sur des faits et très utile

Great book with examples, questionnaires & Frameworks!

A different, practícal and very interesting point of view about dealing with people's talent at work and team building! Great!

Livro seminal sobre gestão. Escrito há alguns anos, mas extremamente atual e muito útil.