Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules
by: Regine Azurin
This article is based on the following book:
First, Break All The Rules
?What The World?s Greatest Managers Do Differently?
By Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
Simon & Schuster
271 pages
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:
- The best managers reject conventional wisdom.
- The best managers treat every employee as an individual.
- The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths and talent.
- The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are watching every move they make.
- Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors.
- People leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for.
- The best managers are those that build a work environment where the employees answer positively to these 12 Questions:
- Do I know what is expected of me at work?
- Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
- At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
- In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
- Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
- Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
- At work, do my opinions seem to count?
- Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
- Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
- Do I have a best friend at work?
- In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
- This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?
- Do I know what is expected of me at work?
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.
About The Author
By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs. http://www.bizsum.com/lite.php
BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service. (c) Copyright 2001-2005, BusinessSummaries.com
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Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
by: Ted Kushner
Are you having a hard time breaking out of your comfort zone?
Everyone has a comfort zone- they are the routines in your life that you've become accustomed to. Routines and habits you are comfortable with and have a hard time changing.
-- Personal comfort zones may include certain routines you have like:
Getting up every morning- you may go to the bathroom first, then make a cup of coffee next, and then finally you may get yourself dressed, etc.. .
-- Business and financial comfort zones may include:
Your trusty day job- the one you've been going to work for at the same place at the same time doing the same thing for the past 10 or 20 years.
Or maybe it's using the same marketing method(s) over and over again without testing new ones.
-- Personal preference comfort zones may include:
Your die-hard vehicle, the trusty friend that has given you reliable transportation...
Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
Spring break > Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules
by: Regine Azurin
This article is based on the following book:
First, Break All The Rules
?What The World?s Greatest Managers Do Differently?
By Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
Simon & Schuster
271 pages
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:
- The best managers reject conventional wisdom.
- The best managers treat every employee as an individual.
- The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths and talent.
- The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are watching every move...
Spring break > Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules
How to Open Your Swimming Pool This Spring
How to Open Your Swimming Pool This Spring
by: Gregory Fort
Soon spring will be here and so will the annual chore of opening your swimming pool. Planning ahead can make the job much easier. There?s nothing worse than realizing your short one bag of shock when you?re in the middle of prepping the pool. So let?s first make a list of chemicals that you might need.
There will be different needs depending on the type of pool you own, so this list is general. Refer to your pool and pump instructions for additional information.
Liquid or powdered Shock
Chlorine powder or tablets
Bromine
pH increase or pH decrease
Sanitizing cartridge for cartridge filters
A test kit or bottle of test strips to test pH and chlorine levels
Before you run off to your local pool supply store for chemicals, now would be the time to check all of your hoses, clamps, skimmer baskets, gaskets and o-rings. If any of the parts...
How to Open Your Swimming Pool This Spring
Spring break > How to Open Your Swimming Pool This Spring
Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
by: Ted Kushner
Are you having a hard time breaking out of your comfort zone?
Everyone has a comfort zone- they are the routines in your life that you've become accustomed to. Routines and habits you are comfortable with and have a hard time changing.
-- Personal comfort zones may include certain routines you have like:
Getting up every morning- you may go to the bathroom first, then make a cup of coffee next, and then finally you may get yourself dressed, etc.. .
-- Business and financial comfort zones may include:
Your trusty day job- the one you've been going to work for at the same place at the same time doing the same thing for the past 10 or 20 years.
Or maybe it's using the same marketing method(s) over and over again without testing new ones.
-- Personal preference comfort zones may include:
Your die-hard vehicle, the trusty friend that has given you reliable transportation...
Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
Spring break > Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
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by: George Chapman
If you're lucky enough to have a lawn with a good topsoil base, much of the hard work of keeping a lawn beautiful is already done for you. But many of us do not have this luxury, and besides, even with a good topsoil base, you still have to work hard to keep a beautiful lawn and garden.
1. The best time to mow a lawn is when it is cool and dry. Wait for the morning dew to dry off, and before the afternoon heat takes hold. Alternatively, late afternoon or early evening following a watering in the morning is also a good time.
2. A hedge is a much better boundary divider than a fence. It will provide better privacy and keep pets and children in - or out. It will attract birds to its shelter, and provide a great backdrop for plants and flowers.
3. Bring the beauty of your garden to you; plant hyacinths near walkways and doors. Their magnificent perfume will swamp the spring air and...
5 Steps To A Better Lawn And Garden
Spring break > 5 Steps To A Better Lawn And Garden
Build Up Your Self Confidence by using Simple Fashion & Beauty Tips
Build Up Your Self Confidence by using Simple Fashion & Beauty Tips
by: Donna McAlister
You are feeling good about yourself and you want to show the world that you have something to offer. You feel that way inside but you look says something totally different. How to get the outside to match how you feel on the inside? Well you have got to ?Dress for Success?.
But how do you accomplish this? Number one you have got the dress the part and by dressing for...
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules Spring break Build Up Your Self Confidence by using Simple Fashion & Beauty Tips
Spring break > Build Up Your Self Confidence by using Simple Fashion & Beauty Tips
Can I Afford Health Insurance?
Can I Afford Health Insurance?
by: Kay Lowe
In light of today's health care costs, a better question would be, "Can I afford NOT to have health insurance?". Indeed, medical expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. A health insurance plan should be an essential part of any responsible financial plan, whether married or single. Even young, healthy adults should bear in mind that a single emergency room visit can cost hundreds, even thousands of...
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules insurance Spring break
Spring break > Can I Afford Health Insurance?
How to Prevent Clogged Gutters
How to Prevent Clogged Gutters
by: Mark J. Donovan
If you have a home with gutters, you probably find yourself a couple of times a year climbing ladders and unclogging them. If there are trees in close proximity to the home, you may be unclogging gutters even more frequently.
I recently saw a simple, but very effective, product that can eliminate this tedious and sometimes dangerous homeowner chore. The product is called ?Gutter Cap? and is manufactured...
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules How to Prevent Clogged Gutters Spring break
Spring break > How to Prevent Clogged Gutters
The Internet And Finding People
The Internet And Finding People
by: John Rivers
Remember that hilarious guy you met at the casino on your last cruise? What about that best friend you had from the high school you transferred from your sophomore year? What about that long lost crush; how is she? Everyone needs to find someone at sometime in their life, and sometimes that can be difficult. Short of hiring a private detective, there are few options available. With the proliferation of the Internet,...
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules cruise
Spring break > The Internet And Finding People
How Can People Find Your Site If They Don?t Know What To Search?
How Can People Find Your Site If They Don?t Know What To Search?
by: Wayne Liu
We all know it is difficult to promote commercial products, especially those commodity items. People selling commodity items are generally submitting their sites to search engines, such as Google and getting links from other sites to increase page ranks. But you will lose some potential customers who don?t know what or how to search.
When we look at how people are using Internet,...
Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules
Spring break > How Can People Find Your Site If They Don?t Know What To Search?
Spring break
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