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First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
267 pp. New York, NY
Simon & Schuster $25.00
Reviewed by Jennifer Sertl, Customer Service Alliance

In my consulting practice I see more and more emphasis and investment in the developing and cultivation or leadership. In order for organizations to capitalize on their human assets, they must invest in the leadership teams who are managing talent. Recently facilitating a project for Innovative Training Strategies I was introduced to this book First, Break All the Rules. This book is rich with analogies, case studies, and practical information for any one who has more than one employee. Buckingham and Coffman present a business case for leadership development that is based on a Gallup survey of over a million employees and 80,000 managers from a vast range of companies and industries. I feel so strongly about this book for you as a business leader and in your organizations' success that I recommend it be a required reading for you and members of your leadership team. That said, my intent here is to share just a couple of the many learnings the book has to offer in order to peak your curiosity and hopefully intrigue you into making the time investment to experience this resource first hand.

Today's companies are having a team of people look at benefit packaging and creating a company profile that is attractive to prospective employees-especially talented employees. One of the things that Buckingham and Coffman warn about is that many companies do things that are effective for all employees. From their research they were able to extract information that was especially true for talented employees. They determined "talented" employees as those who seemed to be the most productive in terms of productivity measures and customer feedback. (There is an intense appendix for those who require supporting facts and data.) What they found was this: talented employees need great managers. "The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor."

So, while your company is spending a lot of resources on employee retention and recruitment, for a return on investment your company would be wise to concurrently develop the leadership team to be talent savvy.

Employee Satisfaction is now on everyone's radar. Organizations want satisfied employees because satisfied employees = satisfied customers. Now that that is understood, how does an organization gage employee satisfaction? There is much offered by Buckingham and Coffman to support this critical question. Through their research they have been able to extract the 12 most effective questions to gear how satisfied your talent pool is:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, 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?
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?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?
12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow.

At first glance, I was surprised the first time I saw this list. Yet, when I thought about what is meaningful to myself as an employee, I nodded my head in agreement. Buckingham and Coffman explain what they learned from the process of gathering data from employees and how they determined these questions as being most effective for evaluating talent satisfaction.

So, First get the book and take advantage of the research and learning provided by Buckingham and Coffman in First Break All the Rules. If time is an issue, the book is also available on audio cassette. Enjoy making positive impact on your employees and co-workers.