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

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Once a manager adopts this foundation of hiring for talent, the easier it will be to use the rest of the keys.

It's also lead me to put effort into reflecting how I'm coloured by what the author describes as 'conventional wisdom about management', which while not necessary is always wrong, is worth questioning. A lot of managers like to make like what they do is some mysterious, mystical thing or just something certain gifted people can do. Successful management encourages and helps employees to develop these innate talents and to become even better at what – thanks to their natural inclinations – they’re already good at. The book then went on to explain the four keys in more detail concluding with a final chapter on how to apply the four keys in business situations. First, Break All The Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman is a management guide that challenges traditional practices.By defining what the end result should be, readers will find that they don't have to waste time trying to control the steps along the way. When selecting someone, they select for talent … not simply experience, intelligence, or determination.

It’s only by knowing their employees this well that great managers are able to choose the right ways to develop them.But in the end, the very simple gist of the book is this: hire the best people for their talent (not skills or knowledge.

Pay attention to what your workers are good at and assign them appropriately, and treat them with respect. Now we were all told as children that we get the best bang for the buck by improving our weak areas.

So, I can see how her principal, perhaps forced to decide sooner or later who would receive such training, enrolled my friend based on her reputation. I can think of a few of my past bosses that I wish had read this book, but I’m glad that at least I know about it now! The book is a result of observations based on 80,000 interviews with managers [3] as conducted by the Gallup Organization in the last 25 years. Rather than drawing hasty conclusions about poor performance, great managers first analyze the situation. Anyway, this book has me thinking about management in an all new way and I am very interested to see what else it has to offer.

Many other things I found to be insightful and useful, but the above I'd say was the gist of what most helped my thinking. While great managers allow employees to be individuals, that doesn’t mean employees are free to do whatever they wish. Both Buckingham and Coffman have started consulting and management training companies of their own, and have written other bestselling business books.The fact that each person has his or her unique and unchangeable set of behaviors means that, for managers, this must be translated into management guidelines.