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First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently | 
| Authors: Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman
Creator: Author
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Category: Book
Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 738598
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 2
ISBN: 0671037862
EAN: 9780671037864
ASIN: 0671037862
Publication Date: November 1, 1999
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| Editorial Reviews:
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
 Revolutionary September 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When it first came out this book, based totally on research (unlike most management books), overturned many accepted business myths but the twelve key factors of really successful managers were difficult to adopt. I recommend the subsequent book "12" which provides case histories and practical tips on these 12 concepts.
 Great to Dip February 15, 2008
Not the most engaging of page-turning reads and more of a "dipper"! Keep it in your briefcase for those 20 minute journeys for insights from some great leaders and find yourself striving to weave patterns from the threads of best practice (as you should........).
Great self awareness January 10, 2008
Certainly a book that goes against the grain of what many people are told to do. First, Break All The Rules is a must read for those who want to take advantage of their natural strengths and talents rather than focus on the weaknesses that we all have. A must read to take the next step in personal improvement.
Bill Chambers
Focus on your strengths May 10, 2006
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
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.
Interesting way of linking good management to company performance April 20, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Given how many business management books there are, it is refreshing to see a research-based attempt to link specific aspects of management theory to company performance.
As a manager, I found this book to be helpful in backing up some things that made intuitive sense and in challenging some basic assumptions I had. It's a very positive way of thinking about how you bring out the strengths of the individuals on a team.
No book has the answers. This one has some thought-provoking findings that I've used to improve the way I manage.
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