Book Reviews Information presented by BookClubReview

Book Summary: First, Break All The Rules


Based on a mammoth research study conducted by the Gallup Organization involving 80,000 managers across different industries, this book explores the challenge of many companies - attaining, keeping and measuring employee satisfaction. Discover how great managers attract, hire, focus, and keep their most talented employees!

Key Ideas:

1. The best managers reject conventional wisdom.

2. The best managers treat every employee as an individual.

3. The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths and talent.

4. The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are watching every move they make.

5. Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors.

6. People leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for.

7. The best managers are those that build a work environment

where the employees answer positively to these 12 Questions:

a. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

b. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

c. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?

d. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

e. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?

f. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

g. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

h. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

i. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

j. Do I have a best friend at work?

k. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

l. This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?

The Gallup study showed that those companies that reflected positive responses to the 12 questions profited more, were more productive as business units, retained more employees per year, and satisfied more customers.

Without satisfying an employee's basic needs first, a manager can never expect the employee to give stellar performance. The basic needs are: knowing what is expected of the employee at work, giving her the equipment and support to do her work right, and answering her basic questions of self-worth and self-esteem by giving praise for good work and caring about her development as a person.

The great manager mantra is don't try to put in what was left out; instead draw out what was left in. You must hire for talent, and hone that talent into outstanding performance.

More wisdom in a nutshell from First, Break All the Rules:

1. Know what can be taught, and what requires a natural talent.

2. Set the right outcomes, not steps. Standardize the end but not the means. As long as the means are within the company's legal boundaries and industry standards,let the employee use his own style to deliver the result or outcome you want.

3. Motivate by focusing on strengths, not weaknesses.

4. Casting is important, if an employee is not performing at excellence, maybe she is not cast in the right role.

5. Every role is noble, respect it enough to hire for talent to match.

6. A manager must excel in the art of the interview. See if the candidate's recurring patterns of behavior match the role he is to fulfill. Ask open-ended questions and let him talk. Listen for specifics.

7. Find ways to measure, count, and reward outcomes.

8. Spend time with your best people. Give constant feedback. If you can't spend an hour every quarter talking to an employee, then you shouldn't be a manager.

9. There are many ways of alleviating a problem or non-talent. Devise a support system, find a complementary partner for him, or an alternative role.

10. Do not promote someone until he reaches his level of incompetence; simply offer bigger rewards within the same range of his work. It is better to have an excellent highly paid waitress or bartender on your team than promote him or her to a poor starting-level bar manager.

11. Some homework to do: Study the best managers in the company and revise training to incorporate what they know. Send your talented people to learn new skills or knowledge. Change recruiting practices to hire for talent, revise employee job descriptions and qualifications.

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla http://www.bizsum.com A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers and More!

mailto:freenewsletter@bizsum.com BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service.

(c) Copyright 2001-2005, BusinessSummaries.com

Regine Azurin is the President of a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.


MORE RESOURCES:

Suspense book reviews
MiamiHerald.com, FL - 17 hours ago
O'Connell specializes in stories about damaged, complex, strong characters. Her nine novels about tormented New York detective Kathy Mallory have earned her ...


Children's Book Reviews
Publishers Weekly, NY - Jan 4, 2009
A read-aloud with an Aussie accent, this bouncy rhyming tale of wandering wombats delivers age-appropriate suspense as well as a countdown. ...


New and Notable book reviews
Arizona Republic, AZ - Jan 4, 2009
It's a good bet that if this is the first Harry Hole novel you read, you'll never miss another. It begins as the Oslo detective investigates a chilling bank ...


Book Reviews
Tumbler Ridge News,  Canada - Jan 5, 2009
As most parents can attest, once rules are set, children will constantly push the boundaries of those rules. That’s one lesson Archibald Mouse learns the ...


Non-Fiction Book Reviews
Monsters and Critics.com - Jan 3, 2009
By Sandy Amazeen Jan 3, 2009, 17:48 GMT This insightful examination of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass shows how they rose from humble beginnings to ...


Book reviews
Edinburgh Evening News, UK - Jan 3, 2009
Rumours: A Luxe Novel by Anna Godbersen is published in paperback by Penguin, priced £6.99. Available January 1 Rumours continue to fly about Elizabeth's ...


I. Book Reviews
National Catholic Reporter, Missouri - Dec 30, 2008
G. Willow Wilson, the first American Muslim professional comic book writer, draws on both American and Middle Eastern culture in her work, ranging from ...


Children's Book Reviews
Publishers Weekly, NY - Dec 21, 2008
Lyon and Catalanotto (previously paired for Mother to Tigers) offer a going-to-bed book with rhythmic, Raffi-like lyrics: “Everything nests—Shh ...


Book reviews: 'A McKettrick Christmas,' 'A Christmas Grace ...
Detroit Free Press, United States - Dec 21, 2008
Linda Lael Miller's "A McKettrick Christmas" is a historical tale focusing on the family her fans have come to love. After years away at school, ...


Book reviews: Yuletide books offer a variety
Detroit Free Press, United States - Dec 21, 2008
BY JAVAN KIENZLE • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • December 21, 2008 In the foreward to a "reintroduction" of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Dinner" (Red Rock ...

Book-Reviews - Google News

home | site map
© 2006