Reviews
I think this is one of the best books about managing people. The book is based on research done by Gallup foundation, so all of the info in the book is based on real data analysis. The book captures real examples, cases and stories from successful managers at big corporations like Disney, GE, Ritz-Carlton, Southwest Airlines, and even sports teams like Chicago Bulls. Authors structured the book in a very attention grabbing way. All ideas and examples are followed by real quotes from managers and employees, even sometimes the scripts of internal email messages from managers to employees. The main morale of the book is that generalisations and stereotypes don’t work with effective management, which is a data supported claim as all the info and the advice in the book is based on interviews with over 80,000 successful managers. One of the main ideas of the book which is heavily emphasised upon in the first chapters is that conventional wisdom is not always the most effective path to follow. Successful managers don’t follow the book on how to treat their employees or how they select them on the first place. The book is full of myth debunking about management and revealing how conventional wisdom or “logical assumptions” don’t work in real life. Cliched concepts and phrases like “Treat all employees equally”, “management fairness”, and “There’s no I in a TEAM” are proven to be unrealistic and don’t fit in in the modern life workplace. I personally liked how the authors made the distinction clear between talents and non-talents criticizing the “self-development” bullshit discourse of people can “improve” their talents. The book also discusses very interesting management styles and concepts like the concept of broadbanded pay plans, which is a very creative and unconventional way of employees compensation. Overall the book is informative and scientific yet light and very interesting.
Highlights
Every time you make a rule you take away a choice and choice, with all of its illumninating repercussions, is the fuel for learning.
• Striving talents explain the why of a person. They explain why he gets aut of bed every day, why he is motivated to push and push just that little bit harder.
• Thinking talents explain the how of a person. They explain how he thinks, how he weighs up alternatives, how he comes to his decisions. Is he a linear, practical thinker, or is he strategic, always playing mental "what if?" games with himself?
• Relating talents explain the who of a person. They explain whom he trusts, whom he builds relationships with, whom he confronts, and whom he ignores. Is he drawn to win over strangers, or is he at ease only with his close friends?
Simplifying diverse talents in 3 categories
Your knowledge is simply “what you are aware of." There are two kinds of knowledge: factual knowledge—things you know; and experiential knowledge—understandings you have picked up along the way.
Skills, knowledge, and talents
Your filter is always working. Of all the possibilities of things you could do or feel or think, your filter is constantly telling you the few things you must do or feel or think. Your filter, more than your race, sex, age, or nationality, is You.
First key
Great managers define a talent as "a recurring pattem of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied." The emphasis here is on the word "recurring.” Your talents, they say, are the behaviors you find yourself doing often. You have a mental filter that sifts through your world, forcing you to pay attention to some stimuli, while others slip past you, unnoticed.
First key
• When selecting someone, they select for talent... not simply ex- perience, intelligence, or determination.
• When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes... not
• When motivating someone, they focus on strengths...not on
• When developing someone, they help him find the right fit... not the right steps. weaknesses. simply the next rung on the ladder.
Chapter 2 – Wisdom of great managers
What a company can, and should, do is keep every manager focused on the four core activities of the catalyst role— select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person. No matter how many different styles are used, when managers play this role well, the foundations are laid.
Chapter 2 – Wisdom of great managers
The most important difference between a great manager and a great leader is one of focus. Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs, and motivation of each person. Great leaders, by contrast, look outward. They look out at the competition, out at the future, out at alternative routes forward. They must be visionaries, strategic thinkers, activators.
Chapter 2 – Wisdom of great managers
People leave managers, not companies. So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people— in the form of better pay, better perks, and better training— when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue. If vou have a turnover problem, look first to your managers.
Chapter 1 – Measuring Stick