First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
by Curt Coffman
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List Price: $20.00
Our Price: $5.00
Your Save: $ 15.00 ( 75% )
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.409
EAN: 9780671582487
Format: Abridged
ISBN: 0671582488
Label: Simon & Schuster Audio
Number Of Items: 2
Publication Date: 1999-07-01
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: For tech geeks managers, a good addition to "The Mythical Man Month."
Comment: Geeks have said for a long, long time that there is easily a 10-to-1 ratio of productivity between the best developers and an average developer. There is tons of evidence to this fact... however it is still a difficult reality to swallow for some folks. In many cases, you're better off with a team of 3 good developers, than a team of 20 average developers. This book not only validates this claim, but also provides proof that this productivity ratio exists in every job role!
This was based on data from a 25-year survey by Gallup... they interviewed over 100,000 people, trying to find out who were great managers, and what they knew. Almost uniformly, they knew that the standard rules about managing people were completely bogus. They break down what attributes your employees have into 3 buckets:
* Knowledge: Basic information; "book learning." People with knowledge interview well, and test well, but that doesn't always translate into productivity. Training people "knowledge" is fast and easy.
* Skills: This is applied knowledge. A great deal of accounting and data entry is applied high-school math, but that doesn't mean any high schooler can do it. They need the skills to know when to apply what knowledge and when. Training people a "skill" takes time, and not all people are cut out for every skill.
* Talent: The most important of the bunch... somebody not only with skills and knowledge, but their brain is wired to be exceptional at this task! You can have a talent for sales, accounting, data entry, development, bartending, housekeeping, management, anything! Training people a "talent" is extraordinarily difficult, but you can find it during an interview.
This book validates what I have said for a long time: manager is a role, not a rank! Only people with the "talent" for being managers should be managers. It should not be an expected career path for all.
One talented employee is easily more valuable than 10 of her peers, across the board. This book provides sufficient examples that should make any decent manager rethink their methods of using their employees like cogs in a giant "process machine." A good manager should look for "talent," and not "skills" or "knowledge" during an interview... and then figure out a way to help their employees harness their latent talent. If so, then you will see 10 times more productivity out of a talented employee, compared to an average one.
This has nothing to do with knowledge, skills, or process... the talented ones just "get it." They see the problem, they know inherently how to solve it, and it brings them tremendous joy to solve it. Don't promote these stars to management; that's not their talent. Instead, let the exceptional employees -- like exceptional baseball players -- make more than an average manager. They call this "broad band" pay scales, and in practice they work pretty well to make sure everybody is exceptional at their role.
What about developers? They had a few things to say about them... somewhat oversimplified, but they said a common career path is from developer to systems analyst. In other words, go from designing one system, to designing integrated systems that work together.
This is a HUGE mistake.
Why? Because both roles require different talents! Developers are problem solvers, but in general they need ALL the pieces of the puzzle before they want to try to solve it. There is no feeling more frustrating to them than not being able to solve a problem because you weren't given sufficient data... or a complete specification.
To illustrate... Imagine you work at a software company. If you ask a talented developer a technical question, but you don't give sufficient information, you might have just cost your company a full day's worth of developer productivity. Why? Because the developer will seethe, and stew, and gather his buddies for a hallway bitch-session about you... which will cause others to likewise seethe and stew, and grumble about how "nobody ever gives them enough information." It all adds up to a full day lost.
It happens. I've seen it.
In contrast, a systems analysts (or architect) thrives on incomplete information. They know they are designing a system with a lot of people, a lot of requirements, a lot of needs, and thus a ton of moving parts. People don't know what they want, because nobody really knows what is possible. An architect can't wait around forever to create a specification: he needs to experiment a little. This means iteration, agility, extreme programming, and all that garbage.
It is certainly possible for one person to have both skills... but usually the best developers have a mild weakness at integrated systems, and vice versa.
Getting your manager to read this book might be tricky... "you suck! read this so you suck less!" Nevertheless, its a good book that will help you make the case that there is talent in every role... you're not asking for special treatment when you ask to play to your strengths. You're asking that your manager let you do what all great managers do.
Simple as that...
Customer Rating:
Summary: I did, and it works!
Comment: Definitely on my recommended book list. A must read for women in business.
Susan Bock
The Success Coach for Women in Business
www.SusanBockSolutions.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's not really about breaking any rules, but it's a good reading
Comment: Outstanding managers know intuitively that one can obtain more from practicing and enhancing our stengths than by trying to overcome our weaknesses. This is the principle of this excellent book and the result of a survey done to a pool of outstanding managers. I bought the book just because it was the result of a Gallup study and it did not dissapoint me. The book contains an interesting but brief explanation of how the study was conceived and performed.
The introduction of this book led my interest to neurosciences, since the author made an analogy between brain circuitry and roads. He mentioned that each brain has differently developed neuronal links, which are developed in early childhood. Those links that are stronger (superhighways compared to small roads) represent our strengths. Access and communication using the superhighways will always be easier for us than struggling through unlevelled sidepaths (our weaknesses) or even to try to broaden these narrow roads, which requires tremendous effort and might be even imposible, since they were set in early childhood. Reading about neurosciences I found out about the plasticity of the brain's circuitry (which years ago was thought to be rigid and set), so with a lot of effort and practise we might overcome some weaknesses, but we would need to really evaluate the effort vs. the result. (See A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain.
I recently found out that had I read the classics, and specifically Aristotle, this idea would not have appeared new to me (so apparently Aristotle broke the rules long time ago), but since I haven't read him, it was good to read this book. Although one always prefers to do things at which one is good at, we sometimes force ourselves to do things at which we are not so good at, to improve our weak spots.
The content of the book is so good, that it makes you forget about the management book writing style and its being repetitive.
The sequel, Now, Discover Your Strengths is also quite good, it makes a summary of the main strengths that people have and to what type of work they can best be applied. It even contains a test (both inside the book or online) to help you discover your strengths.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best book ever about leadership!
Comment: Of all the books I've read about leadership, this is the one that gave me the most. I've been able to use the information in this book every single day and guess what? It really works. If you're interested in management and leadership, start here!
Customer Rating:
Summary: First Break All The Rules
Comment: Very interesting perspective on how top managers operate. Plants seeds of change and presents how why what has been done in the past and currently practiced may have not been effective and ultimately successful as we have all been told it would be. Highly recommended reading for those wanting tho think out of the box.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: For tech geeks managers, a good addition to "The Mythical Man Month."
Comment: Geeks have said for a long, long time that there is easily a 10-to-1 ratio of productivity between the best developers and an average developer. There is tons of evidence to this fact... however it is still a difficult reality to swallow for some folks. In many cases, you're better off with a team of 3 good developers, than a team of 20 average developers. This book not only validates this claim, but also provides proof that this productivity ratio exists in every job role!
This was based on data from a 25-year survey by Gallup... they interviewed over 100,000 people, trying to find out who were great managers, and what they knew. Almost uniformly, they knew that the standard rules about managing people were completely bogus. They break down what attributes your employees have into 3 buckets:
* Knowledge: Basic information; "book learning." People with knowledge interview well, and test well, but that doesn't always translate into productivity. Training people "knowledge" is fast and easy.
* Skills: This is applied knowledge. A great deal of accounting and data entry is applied high-school math, but that doesn't mean any high schooler can do it. They need the skills to know when to apply what knowledge and when. Training people a "skill" takes time, and not all people are cut out for every skill.
* Talent: The most important of the bunch... somebody not only with skills and knowledge, but their brain is wired to be exceptional at this task! You can have a talent for sales, accounting, data entry, development, bartending, housekeeping, management, anything! Training people a "talent" is extraordinarily difficult, but you can find it during an interview.
This book validates what I have said for a long time: manager is a role, not a rank! Only people with the "talent" for being managers should be managers. It should not be an expected career path for all.
One talented employee is easily more valuable than 10 of her peers, across the board. This book provides sufficient examples that should make any decent manager rethink their methods of using their employees like cogs in a giant "process machine." A good manager should look for "talent," and not "skills" or "knowledge" during an interview... and then figure out a way to help their employees harness their latent talent. If so, then you will see 10 times more productivity out of a talented employee, compared to an average one.
This has nothing to do with knowledge, skills, or process... the talented ones just "get it." They see the problem, they know inherently how to solve it, and it brings them tremendous joy to solve it. Don't promote these stars to management; that's not their talent. Instead, let the exceptional employees -- like exceptional baseball players -- make more than an average manager. They call this "broad band" pay scales, and in practice they work pretty well to make sure everybody is exceptional at their role.
What about developers? They had a few things to say about them... somewhat oversimplified, but they said a common career path is from developer to systems analyst. In other words, go from designing one system, to designing integrated systems that work together.
This is a HUGE mistake.
Why? Because both roles require different talents! Developers are problem solvers, but in general they need ALL the pieces of the puzzle before they want to try to solve it. There is no feeling more frustrating to them than not being able to solve a problem because you weren't given sufficient data... or a complete specification.
To illustrate... Imagine you work at a software company. If you ask a talented developer a technical question, but you don't give sufficient information, you might have just cost your company a full day's worth of developer productivity. Why? Because the developer will seethe, and stew, and gather his buddies for a hallway bitch-session about you... which will cause others to likewise seethe and stew, and grumble about how "nobody ever gives them enough information." It all adds up to a full day lost.
It happens. I've seen it.
In contrast, a systems analysts (or architect) thrives on incomplete information. They know they are designing a system with a lot of people, a lot of requirements, a lot of needs, and thus a ton of moving parts. People don't know what they want, because nobody really knows what is possible. An architect can't wait around forever to create a specification: he needs to experiment a little. This means iteration, agility, extreme programming, and all that garbage.
It is certainly possible for one person to have both skills... but usually the best developers have a mild weakness at integrated systems, and vice versa.
Getting your manager to read this book might be tricky... "you suck! read this so you suck less!" Nevertheless, its a good book that will help you make the case that there is talent in every role... you're not asking for special treatment when you ask to play to your strengths. You're asking that your manager let you do what all great managers do.
Simple as that...
Customer Rating:
Summary: I did, and it works!
Comment: Definitely on my recommended book list. A must read for women in business.
Susan Bock
The Success Coach for Women in Business
www.SusanBockSolutions.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's not really about breaking any rules, but it's a good reading
Comment: Outstanding managers know intuitively that one can obtain more from practicing and enhancing our stengths than by trying to overcome our weaknesses. This is the principle of this excellent book and the result of a survey done to a pool of outstanding managers. I bought the book just because it was the result of a Gallup study and it did not dissapoint me. The book contains an interesting but brief explanation of how the study was conceived and performed.
The introduction of this book led my interest to neurosciences, since the author made an analogy between brain circuitry and roads. He mentioned that each brain has differently developed neuronal links, which are developed in early childhood. Those links that are stronger (superhighways compared to small roads) represent our strengths. Access and communication using the superhighways will always be easier for us than struggling through unlevelled sidepaths (our weaknesses) or even to try to broaden these narrow roads, which requires tremendous effort and might be even imposible, since they were set in early childhood. Reading about neurosciences I found out about the plasticity of the brain's circuitry (which years ago was thought to be rigid and set), so with a lot of effort and practise we might overcome some weaknesses, but we would need to really evaluate the effort vs. the result. (See A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain.
I recently found out that had I read the classics, and specifically Aristotle, this idea would not have appeared new to me (so apparently Aristotle broke the rules long time ago), but since I haven't read him, it was good to read this book. Although one always prefers to do things at which one is good at, we sometimes force ourselves to do things at which we are not so good at, to improve our weak spots.
The content of the book is so good, that it makes you forget about the management book writing style and its being repetitive.
The sequel, Now, Discover Your Strengths is also quite good, it makes a summary of the main strengths that people have and to what type of work they can best be applied. It even contains a test (both inside the book or online) to help you discover your strengths.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best book ever about leadership!
Comment: Of all the books I've read about leadership, this is the one that gave me the most. I've been able to use the information in this book every single day and guess what? It really works. If you're interested in management and leadership, start here!
Customer Rating:
Summary: First Break All The Rules
Comment: Very interesting perspective on how top managers operate. Plants seeds of change and presents how why what has been done in the past and currently practiced may have not been effective and ultimately successful as we have all been told it would be. Highly recommended reading for those wanting tho think out of the box.
In "First, Break All The Rules," Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their massive in-depth study of great managers across a wide variety of situations. Some were in leadership positions. Others were front-line supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies; others were key players in small, entrepreneurial companies. Whatever their situations, the managers who ultimately became the focus of Gallup's research were invariably those who excelled at turning each employee's talent into performance. In today's tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark. 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. Buckingham and Coffman explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations for him or her -- they define the right outcomes rather than the right steps; how they motivate people -- they build on each person's unique strengths rather than trying to fix his weaknesses; and, finally, how great managers develop people -- they find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder. This audiobook 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. There are vital performance and career lessons here for managers at every level, and, bestof all, the audiobook shows you how to apply them to your own situation.
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