First, Break All The Rules

"First, Break All The Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman draws its insights from a massive and scientifically objective study of 80,000 managers in 400 companies, influenced in part by the more than one million employees interviewed by the Gallup Organization. I was surprised when I recently returned to reread the book that my copy dates back to 1999 (although the yellowing pages were a hint), but I guess that means that I personally have gathered enough experience applying the principles in the book to voice a significant opinion.

A central theme of the book is that the best managers reject the "conventional wisdom" of people management, and collectively take a different path. Although a convincing body of evidence was presented, the message seemed daringly novel at the time. And yet, more than 10 years later, it is striking how entrenched that "conventional wisdom" remains in corporate America, ensuring the publication remains relevant and important today.

Some aspects of "conventional wisdom" covered in the book include setting expectations by defining the steps to be followed; highlighting "development opportunities" (employee weaknesses) and establishing plans and metrics to overcome said weaknesses; focusing on helping a person learn skills that will lead to them being promoted. These approaches can often be seen enshrined in HR processes such as appraisals and performance reviews.

In contrast, the "best managers" (as identified via objective measures described in the book) invest their energies along certain common patterns. These include focusing employee performance measurement on outcomes and results (versus adherence to prescribed procedure); helping employees leverage and develop their strengths and applying them to their everyday responsibilities; motivating employees to give their best in the role for which they are the best fit (and not using the "next step on the corporate ladder" as the ultimate measure of employee recognition).

I have personally seen significant rewards from applying these principles, when managing a variety of teams and their managers, and in encouraging the approach to be followed by managers who reported to me. The subsequent book from Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" develops a number of these themes further and provides a path for improving employee self-awareness and a framework for managers to have highly productive conversations with employees along these lines.

One very useful checklist is contained in the book, containing excellent questions that an employee should reflect on, and that a manager must consider from the employee’s perspective. Although the list is twelve questions long, the top six are the most important:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the right resources I need to do my work right?
3. Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work? (or if I was to rephrase this, “if I do my best every day, does anyone notice and/or care?”)
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

My experience is that many good managers will instinctively pay attention to items one through five on this list, but that it takes executive level sponsorship to put sufficient emphasis on employee development.

If you have read to this point, I’m sure you've already concluded that I recommend this book to both seasoned managers and aspiring would-be managers. I’ll finish up this article by highlighting a point that is made early on the book (and to my mind only gets fitting treatment in the later book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths"). A manager is quoted as saying "I think the best a manager can do is make each person comfortable with who they are." Taken with the other insights in the book, this really resonates with me, and reinforces that employees perform their best when they are confident in using their strengths to get the job done. I guess that’s why “Now, Discover Your Strengths” is such an important companion to this book.