First, Break All The Rules
Bob Smart reviews "First, Break All The Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
In the hands of a thoughtful Christian manager, this book should be dynamite.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman base this book on Gallup's extensive research of 80,000 top managers over the last 25 years. The purpose? To identify the core skills that make them successful. This book was recommended to me by a new colleague, so I started reading with the ambivalent enthusiasm of someone taking guests to a new restaurant. Perhaps it would tell me more about my new friend than about people management. Relief. From the hors d'oeuvres on, there's a cornucopia of insights to savour. The quality of data that fuels the book's conclusions is extremely impressive. Confidence grows as you realise that this just might be the information that you thought was out there somewhere, and would actually help you do a better job, rather than the latest pontifications of a failed consultant attempting to make it as a Dorset-based management guru. I originally trained as a teacher, and I know that one hour watching a truly skilful, experienced teacher was worth a whole term of education lectures. These guys convinced me. And by chapter 3, I was gripped and recommending the book to my friends.
How does this book help?
First, it dares to challenge concepts that we have all held as gospel. For instance, that more training will compensate for any weakness. Buckingham and Coffman boom a resounding 'NO' to this common recipe. Instead, they say, help people to be excellent in their areas of strength, and find others to cover their weaknesses. Buckingham and Coffman apply twelve core questions to each and every management situation. These questions are simple one-liners; so obvious that you know that you know them already, but have just never seen them expressed so clearly. It is this incisive clarity that gives the book its power.
Do they duck the big issues?
Buckingham and Coffman address the thorny issues that make managers' jobs painful: when and how to make an employee redundant; how to evaluate success; how to provide a fair pay plan; and how to evaluate your own performance. In answering these questions, they call on the best practice of world-class managers, and provide examples of how these principles were applied.
Up to date?
Flatter structures, downsizing and virtual organizations: who needs managers? First Break All the Rules clarifies the role of today's manager, and provides insights into the workplace that makes their work both invaluable and essential. Far from being a cog in yesterday's industrial structure, today's manager is seen as the true optic fibre for high-speed decisions that are essential in a fluid market.
Christian or New Age?
Certainly not 'beads and crystals' but 'tough and true'. Although not overtly written from a Christian standpoint, much of this book is consistent with Christian values: it treats people as people; there is no hint of manipulation or management spin, but rather a brassy recognition of reality followed by authentic solutions. In the hands of a thoughtful Christian manager, this book should be dynamite. I started reading this book on a trip abroad, and gave it away to a colleague before I had finished the final chapter. Then I logged on to the web to get a replacement copy.
First, Break All The Rules is published by Simon and Schuster, 1999, £10.00
Bob Smart
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