MENTORING SESSION

BOOK REVIEW ON

FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES

SUBMITTED BY

MEERA JOSHY

REGISTER NUMBER

1927436

SUBMITTED ON

15 AUGUST 2019

Institute of Management

CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), Bengaluru

 “First, Break All the Rules” book is about how to be a good manager. The core of the
matter lies in how these managers have debunked old myths about management and how they
created new truths on obtaining and keeping talented people in their organization. Some key
ideas of the book include what the best managers do and don’t do: they treat every employee
as an individual; they don’t try to fix weaknesses, but instead focus on strengths and talent;
and they find ways to measure, count, and reward outcomes.After interviewing a million
employees and 80,000 managers, Gallup discovered that twelve items describe the health of a
workplace. The first six are most important. They are:
 I know what is expected of me at work.
 I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
 At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
 In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
 My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
 There is someone at work who encourages my development.
These items are positively linked to at least one of the four business outcomes: productivity,
profitability, retention, and customer satisfaction, and most are linked to two or more.
Employees who score high on the items are said to be engaged. Engagement is most closely
linked to how satisfied the employee is with his or her immediate manager. People leave
managers, not companies.
According to Gallup, there are four key activities in the leadership role. These are: selecting
for talent, defining the correct results, focusing on strengths, and finding the correct fit for
staff. Most of the book deals with these four key operations and how they can excel. It is at
the core of good management to discover and work with the talents of people. The writers
state that selecting the correct set of talents for the job is more crucial for staff than selecting
either abilities or expertise. These two can be taught, but inherent talents.
Research by Gallup describes 34 talent themes divided into four categories: execution,
influence, building relationships, and strategic thinking. If you purchase the book, you can
take the Clifton Strengths Finder Assessment and the Q12 Employee Engagement Survey for
free and explore at least as described by Gallup your personal strengths.
It’s important to slot people into jobs that reflect their talents rather than their resumes. One
of the most touching sections, for me, was about hotel housekeepers. Gallup asked hotels to
identify their best housekeepers, and they interviewed these outstanding workers. Now,
cleaning hotel rooms isn’t most people’s idea of a good time. In fact, it’s considered to be an
entry-level job that most people will choose to leave as soon as possible. But, exemplary
housekeepers love the job and often stay in it for their entire careers. When asked how they
know if a room is clean, one said that the last thing they did before leaving a room was to lie
on the guest’s bed and turn on the ceiling fan.
For the reason why they explained that is the first thing that a guest will do after a long day
out. They will walk into the room, sit down on the bed and turn on the fan. If dust comes off
the top of the fan, then no matter how sparkling clean the rest of the room was, the guest
might think it was as dirty as the top of the fan.
Others talked about making a show for their guests. “Unless the guests object, we will take
the toys that the children leave on the bed, and every day, we will make a little scene for
them. We will put Pooh and Piglet on the pillows together. Pooh will have his arm in a
chocolate candy box. Piglet will have his on the remote control. When the children come
back, they imagine that all day long, Pooh and Piglet hung out on the bed, snacking and
watching TV.”
These great housekeepers had talent. Seen through their filters, cleaning a hotel room wasn’t
just another chore for them to complete. It was a world, a guest’s world. Making each guest’s
world just right brought them strength and satisfaction.Every role played in excellence
deserves respect in the minds of great managers. Each role has its own nobility.
I wish there were more inspirational tales in the book like this. Instead, there were many data-
based parts, for example: Rules of Thumb, How to Manage Around a Weakness, The Art of
Tough Love. Maybe these sections will be exactly what you need to read, or maybe, like me,
you will skim through them. I found that the last section, called “Turning the Keys: A
Practical Guide” really made me sit up and take an interest. For me, this section was, well,
practical. For example, the section on performance management was extremely helpful.
Gallup found four characteristics common to the performance management routines of great
managers.
 First, the routine is simple. Great managers don’t want to spend their time trying to
decipher alien terms and filling out bureaucratic forms. Instead, they prefer a simple
format that allows them to focus on the employee’s difficult work.
 Second, the routine forces frequent interaction between the manager and the
employee. It is no good meeting once a year. More frequent meetings are essential in
order to capture the specifics of an employee’s talents.
  Third, the routine is focused on the future. The good manager discusses what could be
rather than focusing on postmortems.
 Last, the routine asks the employee to keep track of his or her own performance and
learnings. The purpose of self-assessment is to serve as a counterpoint or comparison
with the assessment of the manager.
After discussing the aspects of the routine, the book lists questions the manager can ask in the
first interview with the employee. These include such things as: What did you enjoy most
about your previous work experience? What do you think your strengths are? What are your
goals for your current role? How often would you like to meet with me for these discussions?
I found these questions to be very useful. In addition, there are questions to use in the
performance planning meetings as well as career discovery questions. Every manager, I
believe, would find these helpful.
“Persistence is useful if you are trying to learn a new skill or acquire particular
knowledge...but persistence directed primarily toward your non-talents is self-destructive.” -
one of my most favourite quotes which inspired me in achieving a lot of things and prevent
me from doing wrong things.
One thing I found annoying in the book was how it set up its ideas of the “rules” for
management, and described how people who excelled at Gallup’s definition of management
did things differently. For example, according to the “rules” they describe, traditional
managers believe their job is to help a person overcome weaknesses rather than focusing on
developing strengths. The managers I know do help their team members overcome their most
glaring weaknesses, but they also help them identify their strengths. It’s not an “either-or”
proposition. Even though it’s a bit dated, it’s still a thought-provoking book, and one that
managers should know.