Product Description

Based on the largest study of its kind ever undertaken, company managers reveal revolutionary insights about successful managerial behaviour. Great managers do not help people overcome their weaknesses. They do not believe that each person has unlimited potential. They do play favourites and they break the 'Golden Rule' book everyday. This amazing book explains why great managers break all the rules of conventional wisdom. 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. Great managers are the heroes of this book. Vivid examples show how, as they select, focus, motivate and develop people, great managers turn talent into performance. Finally, the authors have distilled the essence of good management practice into 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #285836 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman expose the fallacies of standard management thinking in First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. In seven chapters, the two consultants for the Gallup Organisation debunk some dearly held notions about management, such as "treat people as you like to be treated"; "people are capable of almost anything"; and "a manager's role is diminishing in today's economy." "Great managers are revolutionaries," the authors write. "This book will take you inside the minds of these managers to explain why they have toppled conventional wisdom and reveal the new truths they have forged in its place."

The authors have culled their observations from more than 80,000 interviews conducted by Gallup during the past 25 years. Buckingham and Coffman outline "four keys" to becoming an excellent manager: finding the right fit for employees, focusing on strengths of employees, defining the right results, and selecting staff for talent--not just knowledge and skills. First, Break All the Rules offers specific techniques for helping people perform better on the job. For instance, the authors show ways to structure a trial period for a new worker and how to create a pay plan that rewards people for their expertise instead of how fast they climb the company ladder. "The point is to focus people toward performance," they write. "The manager is, and should be, totally responsible for this." Written in plain English and well organised, this book tells you exactly how to improve as a supervisor. --Dan Ring

About the Author
Marcus Buckingham, who was born in England and is a graduate of Cambridge University, is one of the Gallup organisation's leading management consultants and leader of its 15 year study. Curt Coffman is Senior Vice President and Senior Consultant at Gallup, and consults for many of the Fortune 500 companies.

Customer Reviews

Focus on your strengths
I strongly believe in focusing on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Any time you spend on improving your weaknesses is wasted, because you're not spending time doing what you do best, and you can get your weakness to improve from a 5 to a 7, but it won't become a 9 ever.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman focus on the same. As a manager you should focus people on their strengths to get the most out of them. It means changing the way you hire them, the way you train them, the way you reward them and the way you team them up.

For me and many of my participants (I'm a management trainer), this book is a great relief. No more competence management, which tells you which gaps you still need to close to become all-round perfect. An exhausting message to hear, by the way, because you will NEVER get a natural eye for detail or be a great out of the box thinker... unless that was your given talent.

The art, so say the writers, is to create a safety net for a person's weakness, so it stops being a problem. Such as teaming them up with someone who has complementary skills, or rearranging their task to never get them to come in touch with their weakness. A leader, in short, must do anything possible to allow his or her people to focus fully on their strengths.

I find this book hugely inspirational, not just for leaders, but also for employees. It relieves you from the pressure of having to be all-round perfect. It makes a powerful step towards personal branding.

The best book on motivation I have ever read!
I wish I could remember how I first came to hear of this book. I would love to thank the person or journalist who recommended it.

My paperback copy, now around two years old, is covered in highlighter pen, plastered in post-it notes and is referred to again and again. My boss bought copies for everyone in our office on my recommendation and I've recommended it to dozens of managers that I've worked with and coached.

It just makes sense. First there's Gallup's research pedigree (in this case more than a million interviews over twenty five years), then there's the concept: if you want to know how the world's greatest managers get exceptional performance from their people, don't ask the managers - ask the people.

From all this research, Gallup have distilled the essence of great management (arguably, great leadership) into 12 questions. If your employees can answer positively to all 12 questions, then you will have built a great place to work and will undoubtedly have highly motivated, highly productive people.

What makes this such a great book (in addition to the above) is the writing style. It's not dry research findings, it's fascinating snippets of conversations, analogies, humour and a compelling argument.

This turns conventional management wisdom on its head in a very refreshing way. It also says 'there's no standard for Great Manager that you have to try to be. Anyone can do it if they get these fundamental building blocks in place' (the 12 questions).

If you buy this book, I would also highly recommend the follow up 'Now, Discover Your Strengths' to gain further insights into how you can tap more of your own potential and more of those around you at work.

If you manage people, or aspire to, you must read 'First, break All The Rules'. As a result, you will understand that if you have any performance problems amongst your people it's not them - it's the environment you've created that they work within. In some cases that will mean redeploying them (possibly outside your organisation). However, in most cases, this book will show you how, with a little fine tuning, you can turn a mediocre performer into a superstar.

Buy this book. Improve your managerial performance.

My Secret Weapon in Executing as a People Manager
This book is provocative and it challenges conventional wisdom in people management.

Gallup's thorough research presented in this book reveal the "Four Keys of Great Managers" that should unlock the potential of each and every employee (the "... not" statements represent conventional wisdom according to the authors)

1. When selecting someone, they select for talent ... not simply experience, intelligence, or determination.
2. When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes ... not the right steps.
3. When motivating someone, they focus on strengths ... not on weaknesses.
4. When developing someone, they find him the right fit ... not simply the next rung on the ladder

So great managers don't believe that a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They don't try to help a person overcome his weaknesses (instead they devise a support system. Find a complementary partner. Or find an alternative role). They consistently disregard the golden rule - i.e. treat people as you would like to be treated - instead they acknowledge that each employee is unique and thus would demand different things of you, the manager! And they even play favourites (i.e. spend the most time with your best people).

Many of us know by experience that it is hard to manage others well. Continually, you have to balance the competing interests of the employee, the customer, the company, and even yourself. You attend too much to one, and you invariably upset the others.

This book cannot make the manager's role easier. But it certainly provides you with some brilliant insights into effective people management. The book's Four Keys should be inspiring for any people manager, even if you do not accept all of their findings. At least, you'll find yourself challenged as they document their conclusions based on 80,000 interviews.

I have found their twelve questions to measure the strength of a workplace very helpful for regular individual reviews as well:

[What do the employee get?]
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?

[What do the employee give?]
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?

[Do the employee belong here?]
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?

[How can we all grow?]
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?"

I liked the book so much that I also bought the audio CD, which is enthusiastically read by Cunningham with a British accent.

At last, one of my favourite quotes from this book:

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's hard enough.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business