Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman believe that all of the conventional rules for how leaders ought to manage are wrong. If we are going to learn to manage well, we need to First, Break All the Rules.

About two years ago one of our pastors (Zach Imboden) introduced me to Strengths Finder. That then trickled down to our Executive Team and then our entire staff. It has been an encouragement to watch our team grow in our understanding of our own strengths and our co-workers strengths. The impact of learning to contribute our best and focus on the best contributions our teammates can make has made a significant difference.

When Zach tipped me off to this book this year, I was all-in. I’m so glad he did. It’s a great book. Gallup has been around for a long time and in that time they’ve been able to compile a tremendous amount of data on organizations, employers, and employees. They asked the best employers what their secrets of management were and the best employees what attracted, focused, and kept them at their job.

The twelve most important questions for attracting and keeping talented employees are:

1) Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2) Do I have the materials and equipment to do what I do best every day?

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 doing 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 my job 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, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

12) This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

The unifying theme of these questions is the manager. The manager “was the critical player in building a strong workplace.” People stay because of their manager and “people leave managers, not companies.” Each of the twelve questions is linked to at least one of the following: productivity, profitability, retention, and customer satisfaction. Most connect to two.

Buckingham and Coffman do not believe all of the questions are equal. There are connections between the questions and an order that they come in. The “base camp” is the first two questions. The theme of these two questions is “what do I get?” Camp 1 is questions 3-6. Great managers begin with these first six questions. The theme of these two questions is “what do I give?” Camp 2 is questions 7-10 and its theme is “do I belong here?” Camp 3 is the final two questions which ask “how can we all grow?”

Buckingham and Coffman then begin to address the ways in which great managers buck conventional wisdom.

“Conventional wisdom encourages you to think like the frog. People’s natures do change, it whispers. Anyone can be anything they want to be if they just try hard enough…Great managers reject this out of hand. They remember what the frog forgot: that each individual… is true to his unique nature.” Great managers don’t focus on fixing weaknesses, they focus on maximizing strengths and finding the right organizational fit.

Buckingham and Coffman say that neurological research shows that by the age of 15 most of the neurological highways in the brain have been set. It is those highways that determine what will be that individual’s strengths for the rest of his or her life. A leader doesn’t fight those natural strengths, but builds and uses them. Talents are not unusual—everyone has talents. A great manager hires for those talents and then deploys those talents. Outcomes must be created to play to those strengths.

In the words of Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant, “You can’t just draw up plays and then just plug your players in. No matter how well you have designed your playbook, it’s useless if you don’t know which plays your players can run. When I draw up my playbook, I always go from the players to the plays.” Buckingham and Coffman say, “One of the signs of a great manager is the ability to describe, in detail, the unique talents of each of his or her people…” A great manager then helps that employee to cultivate and utilize those talents.

Furthermore, great managers “insist on breaking the ‘Golden Rule’ with every single employee...” they do play favorites. To treat everyone with the Golden Rule “presupposes that everyone breathes the same psychological oxygen as you.” The best managers “spend the most time with their most productive employees.”

Great managers “strive to carve out a unique set of expectations” for each employee. “They try to highlight and perfect each person’s unique style.” And then they “run interference for each employee, so that each can exercise his or her talents even more freely.”

Buckingham and Coffman encourage managers to make sure their beset employees know how appreciated they are. Don’t hesitate to encourage and “rehire” your best employees, building your teams around them.

Finally, great managers “create heroes in every role.” They don’t create a corporate ladder where every employee is pushed to look upward: no, they realize that every position is important and every there are organizational heroes all around. For employees with unique talents that shouldn’t be built to climb the organizational ladder, how can you create opportunities for them to grow and thrive? How can they grow their potential in their areas strength?

Buckingham and Coffman closer the book with practical suggestions on how to hire for talent, and create meetings that reinforce a strengths-based culture.

I benefited greatly from First, Break All the Rules. If you sit in a leadership seat in any organization or hope to one day do so, I encourage you to pick up and profit from the wisdom found in this excellent resource.

Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

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