Revolutionary
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When it first came out this book, based totally on research (unlike most management books), overturned many accepted business myths but the twelve key factors of really successful managers were difficult to adopt. I recommend the subsequent book "12" which provides case histories and practical tips on these 12 concepts.
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Great to Dip
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Not the most engaging of page-turning reads and more of a "dipper"! Keep it in your briefcase for those 20 minute journeys for insights from some great leaders and find yourself striving to weave patterns from the threads of best practice (as you should........).
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Great self awareness
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Certainly a book that goes against the grain of what many people are told to do. First, Break All The Rules is a must read for those who want to take advantage of their natural strengths and talents rather than focus on the weaknesses that we all have. A must read to take the next step in personal improvement.
Bill Chambers
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Focus on your strengths
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I strongly believe in focusing on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Any time you spend on improving your weaknesses is wasted, because you're not spending time doing what you do best, and you can get your weakness to improve from a 5 to a 7, but it won't become a 9 ever.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman focus on the same. As a manager you should focus people on their strengths to get the most out of them. It means changing the way you hire them, the way you train them, the way you reward them and the way you team them up.
For me and many of my participants (I'm a management trainer), this book is a great relief. No more competence management, which tells you which gaps you still need to close to become all-round perfect. An exhausting message to hear, by the way, because you will NEVER get a natural eye for detail or be a great out of the box thinker... unless that was your given talent.
The art, so say the writers, is to create a safety net for a person's weakness, so it stops being a problem. Such as teaming them up with someone who has complementary skills, or rearranging their task to never get them to come in touch with their weakness. A leader, in short, must do anything possible to allow his or her people to focus fully on their strengths.
I find this book hugely inspirational, not just for leaders, but also for employees. It relieves you from the pressure of having to be all-round perfect. It makes a powerful step towards personal branding.
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Interesting way of linking good management to company performance
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Given how many business management books there are, it is refreshing to see a research-based attempt to link specific aspects of management theory to company performance.
As a manager, I found this book to be helpful in backing up some things that made intuitive sense and in challenging some basic assumptions I had. It's a very positive way of thinking about how you bring out the strengths of the individuals on a team.
No book has the answers. This one has some thought-provoking findings that I've used to improve the way I manage.
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