Well researched and well presented. All managers must read this book.

books:

	• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman Simon & Schuster, 1999 - 255 pages average customer review:based on 261 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good to Great Management: What You Need To Know

I've observed misguided efforts and dysfunctions of momentous proportions in many organizations. Mismanagement is everywhere. The managers I've known were smart and worked incredibly hard, but many were ultimately unsuccessful -- at least, based on the trail of de-motivated people they left behind them. Management is hard. And the proliferation of MBA courses and books on management haven't stopped new generations of managers from making the same mistakes. Worse, most people seem to be unable to tell the difference between good management and bad management.

At last, there's a book that definitively states what good management is, and which provides a usable explanation of the difference between leadership and management. Not only that, but it comes down solidly in support of those unsung heroes of organizations, the great managers that motivate people and produce great results in spite of the frequent absurdities of conventional management thinking and the incompetence of some business leaders.

There are two central reasons why this is a great book. First, it is based on the solid research work done by the Gallup Corporation, which surveyed one million employees and interviewed 80,000 managers (each interview lasting an hour and a half and consisting of open-ended questions). Second, it is written by a world-class thinker who has a genius for getting to the essentials of the data, a passion for the subject, and a clear voice for communicating his message.

Coffman presumably contributed a great deal to the book, but the dominant voice is Buckingham's, as is clear from reading his two follow-up books, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" (with Don Clifton) and "The One Thing You Need To Know." Both these later books are in the top tier of business books and provide further insights. The first provides details of the strengths (talents) managers need to build upon, and the second distills the essentials of good management down to just one principle as well as looking at leadership and individual achievement (see marcusbuckingham.com to learn more).

The core value of "First, Break All The Rules" derives from the Gallup data -- which contains the combined wisdom of 80,000 managers and the analysis that distills that wisdom into 12 simple questions that Buckingham and Coffman call the "Measuring Stick." These 12 questions are highly significant. They directly measure management performance and have been used with dramatic results at some companies (such as Best Buy). What's more, they are so fundamental that they can be used by absolutely anyone in any business to measure and improve their own management performance.

Buckingham and Coffman use a climbing metaphor to split the 12 questions into 4 stages.

At Base Camp you want to know what is expected of you:
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?

At Camp 1 you want to know if you're any good at the job:
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?

At Camp 2 you want to know if you are a good fit:
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?

At Camp 3 you want to make things better, to learn, to grow, to innovate.
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?"

If you can get your employees to answer "Strongly Agree" to all 12 questions, then they have arrived at the summit and your team is working at peak productivity.

You could consider these 4 stages to represent a hierarchy of needs . For employees to be fully motivated they must start by understanding what's expected of them and finish by realizing their potential: Expectations --> Confidence -->Belonging-->Actualization.

Buckingham and Coffman point out what happens if you lose sight of your talents or get promoted into a position where you can't answer "Yes" to the first 6 questions. "You are in an extremely precarious position. On the surface everything seems fine--you like your team members, you are learning and growing--but deep down you are disengaged. Not only are you less productive than you could be, but you would jump ship at the first good offer."

Another interesting finding of the research is that managers are the critical players in companies and that productivity is not dependent on company vision, benefits, or pay but is, in fact, correlated with the performance of managers. Managers are the catalysts. Great managers focus on the talents of their people, building on their strengths, and produce superior results

Buckingham and Coffman identify four activities that great managers do consistently: hire for talent rather than experience; define outcomes rather than define steps; focus on building strengths rather than fixing weaknesses; and find the right role to fit for a person's talents rather than moving or promoting the person to a role that doesn't fit his or her talents. This is consistent with what Drucker advises in "The Effective Executive," and is indeed a useful prescription to follow.

There are some minor shortcomings of the book. For example, the central thesis of the book is that talents can't be learned. But some talents like Empathy, Communication, and Connectedness are necessary for people's personal happiness and success at work, and a person absolutely can develop them to a considerable extent given sufficient time and effort. Also, the advice in the last half is not as revolutionary as the book makes out, and may not even be actionable, as it may not be in your power to hire for talent or create different job titles or pay scales. However the principles are correct, and the book provides a welcome reminder that it makes no sense to promote people out of their area of competence.

In conclusion, this is a great book. If you regularly ask the 12 questions and work every day selecting for talent, defining outcomes, focusing on strengths, and finding the right fit, you too -- maybe -- could become a great manager. That is, of course, if you have the right talents.

Graham Lawes

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Well researched and well presented. All managers must read this book.

This is a well researched book. The authors arrived at their conclusions after analyzing data collected by Gallup over 25 years - using an impressive sample size of 80 thousand managers and 1 million staff from 400 companies. Gallup has used its expertise in survey research to link employee engagement to business performance. The concepts are well explained and presented.
The essence of the findings lie in the 4 Keys of great managers and the 12 Questions that give organizations the information they need to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees.
The 4 Keys of great managers:
1. Select for talent - the authors define talent as "recurring patterns of behavior" and state that great managers find the match between talents and roles.
2. Define the right outcomes - managers needs to turn talent into performance. This can be done by defining the right outcomes and letting people find their own route toward the outcomes.
3. Focus on strengths - managers need to concentrate on strengths and not on weaknesses.
4. Find the Right Fit - managers need to assign roles to employees that give the employees the greatest chance of success.
The 12 Questions make an excellent list of questions that will be helpful to organizations as well as to employees. The authors group the questions into various categories and explain the importance of each question and group.
I give this book 5 stars because the insights are practical and backed by empirical evidence, and the book is well presented. I was able to apply the concepts immediately. I read this book when I was assigned the role of a team lead. I was able to improve the efficiency of the team by assigning tasks to people based on their individual strengths.
This book has a lot of substance. I am sure I will be referring to it often to make the valuable insights a part of my management style. In addition, it does a good job explaining key business terms that people often take for granted, such as talent, skills, knowledge, etc.
I also like the fact that this book has proven some of Peter Drucker's concepts with scientific research. Here are a couple of examples that are verbatim quotes from "The Essential Drucker" :
Chapter 9 : Picking People - The Basic rules: (page 130):
"... the person and the assignment need to fit each other.",
"... effective executives do not start out by looking at weaknesses. You cannot build performances on weaknesses. You can build only on strengths".
"First Break..." is an excellent book that I recommend as a must read to every manager and anybody interested in management.

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Best management book I ever read!

In all my 25+ years of learning the art of management, this book quite simply lays it all out. Through their extensive research, the authors have their facts down straight as they easily show you how to "break the rules" and create the ideal employment dynamic which makes for better employees and a better bottom line. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

Everyone in the workforce should read this!

This is a phenomenal book. It's not just a book about management, either--although it is the best management book I've ever read. It's really about people, how they work, are motivated, disenfranchised, and more. This indepth insight and the very clear recommendations should be required reading for all managers and highly recommended for anyone in the workforce.

The book is also really well laid out. It's organized in short chunks, which make it very easy to pick up for 5 minutes or so at a time. Of course, there were a few times that I had a hard time putting it back down, though.

If you're going to read one management book, this is the one to read.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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