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

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently | Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman | Masive Subjective Polling of Successful Criteria

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First, Break All t...

	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 263 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Love makes the difference!

The Bible says "And the greatest of these is love."

It's true that people don't care until they know how much you care. This books is all about that. After working 1 year (only 1 out of 9 years of a bad boss run makes me very blessed!) under a manipulative, discouraging boss who thinks he's God, I vowed never to be like him. Enter this practical book.

This book showed the difference between leaders who care, and those who don't. I've since applied it with my staff and found it most helpful to my staff and I. It's all about discovering their strengths, ensuring they have the chance to use and enhance their strengths in everything they do, so that it results in a performance culture within your teams.

This book was only the beginning. Be sure to read "Now Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham as well. And of course, read the other amazing books by Collins and/or Porras, "Built To Last" and "Good To Great"!

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Masive Subjective Polling of Successful Criteria

Is this book about spirituality, positive thinking, or morality? Maybe, maybe not... depending on your definitions (probably not). However, this book is definitely about the current state of business management, employee satisfaction, and the 'bottom line'.

There are 12 specific areas that employees are keenly interested in that successful managers regularly address. You will find them here. More basic a discovery is the needed emphasis on matching specific jobs with the right talent make-up. Talents are usually overshadowed by concentration on experience, skills, and determination when grading applicants. Talents are here described as "simply recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior." Talents would include the areas of striving, thinking and relating. Different positions require different talents.

This book is a 'tough love" book. It sort of makes you feel sad at times by the way it pours on the "people don't change" philosophy, which I don't feel is as 'hard and fast' as the authors make out. In their defense however, I believe there are a lot of people who would be happier and more productive on jobs that followed their natural bent.

Polls and surveys show propensities and probablities. As viewed as such, polls are fine. Used as 'rules'... they are a step above worm fodder. If something works 75 percent of the time, that means that 25% of the time it is inappropriate at best. This important point is where this book falls down - in failing to temper its own message with common sense.

As far as describing pure business phenomena, this book belongs as a staid reference in your business library, but don't forget that these are not 'rules.' Four stars.

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Fresh Approach focusing on Positive Points

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have recommended it to others, e.g. my manager and our HR manager. I like the approach on focusing on employee's talents versus spending a majority of your time on their shortcomings and how to improve them. You need to lead your employees to positions that use their talents. I believe this would improve employee engagement as well.

Good, focused and Practical

This is definitely one the best books that not only teaches the essence of management and leadership but also enables us to distinguish between the two. Also the book gives wonderful insights on the human nature - talents,skills and knowledge - the fundamental building blocks. Unlike many other books on the similar topics, this book is highly focused and practical.
Most of all it challenges the conventional wisdom like "all men are equal" or "you can achieve anything if you try hard enough". It instead provides the facts "as-is" rather than what we want to believe and also teaches how to make best use of them.
The only part that I slightly disagree with, is author's insistence on the fact that talents are "hard-wired" in brain and are not subject to change. Author further uses this fact as a reason why every individual is different. Being a student of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, I have studied the artificial neural networks, which closely resemble the human brain. Armed with that knowledge I can confidently say that synapses (which build our brain) can be formed by experience also and hence talent can be "induced". But the catch here is that every individual is resistant to change, therefore it is still a waste of time and energy to do so. But although you cannot change other person, you can change YOU and acquire new talents.
So what about are individuality?
Well, there are million and millions of cells in our brain so there are almost unimaginable number of ways to connect them and form synapses. Simple mathematics will tell you that this means that there is almost zero probability that any two individuals are same and possess similar talents.
So this means everything that is written in this books still holds true.
YOU cannot change others, but You can change YOU. That is if you are willing to do so.

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First Read This, Then Break The Rules

As a young, newly promoted manager within a "legacy" business unit of a Fortune 50 company, I read Buckingham's book with enthusiasm. I had never hired an employee before and am managing a team where the the median age is nearly 15 years my senior. Needless to say, upon accepting the position, I needed help. I had read "Discover Your Sales Strengths" a few years prior and that gave me a good foundation upon which to I could proceed with "First, Break All The Rules." I found the book well-laid out, simple, and to the point. The behaviors of great managers were summed up in a few key terms that were easy to adapt to my own individual style. I kept the book at my side during the first 30 days of my management tenure and referenced it often during the hiring process of four new sales representatives. As a result, I can proudly say that I hired the right people for the right roles within the right firm. In addition, I have been able to clearly articulate expectations, effectively access individual motivation, and implement a professional development initiative that is customized to each of my reps. I may still be too new and too ignorant to know any different, but I feel that I've found my place in management. I have always enjoyed coaching individuals (personal life and in a past life as a junior officer with the Marines) and Buckingham's book taught me how to do it better than I ever thought possible.

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