It’s worth a nickel
Because I’d like to have the opportunity to be a manager someday, I often pick up books that I think will give me better insight in how to motivate people. I also just love learning and often find a compelling story is the best way to take in new information.
If you’re looking for a compelling story, First, Break All the Rules is not for you. It is a dry, fact-based account of a long-term study performed by the Gallup organization, in which they interviewed over 80,000 managers to figure out what makes great managers different from mediocre ones.
Now, although it’s not a compelling story, it is absolutely chock full of great information. It’s well worth a skim if you’re interested in the topic, but you may want to opt out of a careful, cover-to-cover read.
One of the most fascinating topics for me was the way Buckingham and Coffman separate skills from talents. They consider the former to be learned or learnable, whereas the latter are innate and able to be honed, but unlikely to be created from nothing. Appendix C in the volume is a great reference that lists various talents and attempts to organize them; I actually kept a copy of this because I think it’s a great list to think about when choosing people to fill roles on a project or team.
As I read, I also noted things about some of the great (and less-than-great) managers I’ve had in my lifetime. The authors note, and I heartily agree, that most great managers make it look easy. They use their own natural talents to bring out the best in their people, and every single manager I’ve had shows one or more of the characteristics mentioned in the book. To me, that’s encouraging: even my worst manager ever (and I name no names!) did some things right. That’s a story of possibility, of opportunity, of redemption: we can all improve, and we can all capitalize on our talents to help us get there.
