Book Summary: First, Break All The Rules:

The following ideas are not mine but they come from a great management book: First, Break All The Rules (a book based on a Gallup study on what great managers do to be so great)


Key Ideas:
1. The best managers reject conventional wisdom.
2. The best managers treat every employee as an individual.
3. The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths
1. and talent.
4. The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are
2. watching every move they make.
5. Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors.
6. People leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for.
7. The best managers are those that build a work environment where the employees
3. answer positively to these 12 Questions:

* Do I know what is expected of me at work?
* Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
* At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
* In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
* Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
* Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
* At work, do my opinions seem to count?
* Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
* Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
* Do I have a best friend at work?
* In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
* This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?

Procedure

Procedure: a tool not a purpose!

As manager, I try to encourage people to solve problems and think outside procedures. If a procedure doesn't help solving a problem, maybe the procedure is too rigid and maybe we should think more carefully about it. Maybe it needs an update.

Management Creed

One of my main priorities as a manager is to develop people. I'm striving to create development opportunities for my team, to help them become better professionals, better as humans, better in communication, more organized and more effective. I wish all feel that our project is in line with their personal development aspirations. Only then I can obtain the 110% we need to finish within impossible constraints. I wish I never disappoint my colleagues, to be honest and fair no matter what the consequences, not to make compromises, care deeply for them as humans beings, with feelings, needs, hopes and dreams. Many times I fail to get that 110%, but then I know I've made a mistake somewhere - not in my creed but in my deeds.