Book Tamers| book reviews

First break all the rules

One million employees and 80.000 managers in 400 companies were subject to a study. The result of this study is the exact same book I am talking about today.

Big managers break all the rules

This is pretty much the main idea of the book and Gallup Organization, one of the biggest consulting firms in the management area, came up to with after no less than 25 years. To be completely honest, I’m actually afraid each time I open a management book because I always have a problem with recipes and ideas that were already explored. Despite this lack of trust in recipes, I hate to read that people who are considered experts in management do things in a completely different way than mine.

This considering, First break all the rules was an oasis of tranquility. Respected, loved and, last but not least, efficient managers break all the possible “rules”. People who have a strong background in Human Resources know that there are people with a certain look in their eyes, who enter the room and one absolutely knows that they are the ones for the job, the ones that can make the difference.

I imagine that exceptional managers should look the same way, they should be able to run systems letting go of their prejudices, firmly denying deeply rooted procedures and standards, especially in multinational companies. First break all the rules is all about this kind of people.

You have the right to favor your employees. You actually need to do it!

Fairness doesn’t mean equality between employees. Equity theory says that one should treat fairly his employees, not “evenly”! For some deserve more than others, for some offer more than others. Authors from Gallup Organization go even further by saying managers have the right to have their own favorite employees and repay them whenever they see it fit.

As another example, studies show that it is stupid to try to improve the weaknesses of the people you work with and I totally agree. Why is it wrong? Well, you will find that reading the book, I have already told you too much. The only thing that I’m going to add, I promise, is that each idea which is mentioned in First break all the rules is seriously argued and statistically sustained.

Finally, I feel the need to say that I don’t agree entirely with all of what is written in this book and I am not going to apply each “rule” found there just because other 80.000 managers do that. It wouldn’t actually be in the spirit of the book to do that, would it now?

Written by Andrei