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Before you interview another applicant, read this book. I identified some of the hiring mistakes I have been making. Primarily, I've been hiring for experience and not hiring for talent. FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman has helped me to understand what I already knew but was failing to identify and that is, years of experience is worthless if the person doesn't have the talent to do the job.
This book is the result of the Gallop Organization's study of over 400 companies and 80,000 managers. The jacket touts it as the largest study of its kind ever conducted. It probably is. The study reveals some interesting break-throughs in how great managers can influence and form great companies. Boiled down to its essence, the study revolves around 12 questions for employees. I employ 48 people and when I gave the questionnaire to them, it revealed my strengths and weaknesses with some very surprising results. I have found this be a fantastic tool to identify areas were I excel and areas where I need to improve, as a business manager.
I'm very big on leadership, but I've always had trouble wrapping my head around the concept that management is leadership's less important cousin. This study succinctly identifies some of the differences in the two and clearly illustrates that comparing leadership to management is like comparing apples to oranges. They are clearly two distinct and separate skill sets that cannot be compared. Mark Sanborn first brought this notion to the surface with his book, "You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader", but this book really expands the concept.
For me, a good measure of a book is the amount of notes in the margins. This one is cover to cover. I write a lot of training material for my people and I have garnered enough material from this book to last for several months. I know I will reference this book often.
"Excellent"
2009-07-30
- Reviewed By User: AICLD4DN5IUPS
This is a great book on a step by step guide to managing people based on Gallup research rather than opionion.
"Some good general advice, but..."
2009-05-06
- Reviewed By User: AYN4RPWUZBOLY
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"
2009-04-13
- Reviewed By User: A3E0ZH1C6HDLB6
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"
2009-03-24
- Reviewed By User: A20D5C8J453W4X
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.
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"A must read for managers"
"Read before hiring."
"Some good general advice, but..."